By the Toe
by The Antic Repartee
Summary: Ruffnut Thorston knew three things about Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III:  1. He was fun to look at, 2. He needed to be caged, and 3. He was hiding something that she didn't really care about. Crushes, plans, and suspicions ahead! The UNtelling of the movie.
1. Eeny

**A/N: I don't own all of..._this._**

This is a mini-story from Ruffnut's POV. I am not bashing characters, I am trying to stay _in_ character from someone else's perspective. So here is: How to Be Psychotic While Someone Else Trains a Dragon.

**Eeny**

Explosions rocked the ground, homes crumpled under abrasive flames and people screamed into the night. Weapons flashed through the air, battling teeth and claws and hunger. The blazes ravaging their village blotted out the stars.

This was Asgard for Ruffnut.

She danced around a rolling Viking covered in Terrors, dove to avoid a comet of wild fire, and sprinted towards the water cask Fishlegs had just wheeled to a stop.

Ruffnut elbowed Snotlout out of the way to refill her bucket in record time.

"Hey—what gives?" he whined but she had already spun away from the nozzle.

Her braids swung gaily at her back, her full bucket clasped with both hands. Fire brigade might be considered elementary, but it was a necessary stepping-stone on her path to becoming a shieldmaiden.

And sheildmaiden's didn't lose to their brothers.

Ruffnut scowled at Tuffnut, who had blindsided her and victoriously wrenched the bucket from her grip.

"Better luck next time, butt-boil!" he cackled, skipping backwards from her.

"Chickenshit!" Ruffnut snarled. She leapt forward; her hands grabbed for the handle and yanked until the bucket had returned to her. The sodden wood groaned with the strain.

_"Ha!"_

She wouldn't give Tuffnut a chance to repossess it. With one hand braced on the bottom of the bucket, Ruffnut turned toward the nearest source of heat...just in time to see Astrid already there.

The other girl tossed a laughable amount of water on a dying flame only for a Gronkle to have it rekindled. Astrid didn't so much as flinch, seemingly unaffected by the powerful temperature or chaotic noise. She continued onto the next fire, taking the lead so that Ruffnut and the others had no choice but to follow her.

Ruffnut wrinkled her nose. Was it _necessary_ for Astrid to swing her hips like that? No. It wasn't. But then one never knew when a particularly strong and bride-seeking bachelor watched.

If Ruffnut's hips would grow out like her mother promised they some day would she'd surely be doing the same thing.

Ruffnut swallowed down some biting liquid in her throat and she tried to convince herself it was disgust—not jealousy—that welled in her stomach.

Stupid, perfect Astrid with her stupid, perfect hips and stupid...fire-snatching timing.

The light from the new flare did more than make Miss Suck-Up look good; it drew Ruffnut's attention to the forge where the blaze highlighted the face of the chief's son. Hiccup had the goofiest, dopiest smile Ruffnut had ever seen—and she had see a lot of his smiles because she liked to frequent the "blacksmith cage" to gawk at him. He was just very fun to look at.

Too bad _he_ was looking at Astrid.

Not only did the girl beat her at fire-brigade duties, she actually had boys with crushes on her as well.

Something struck Ruffnut right between her shoulder blades. She coughed from the force.

"Come on, witch!" Tuffnut hollered in her ear. "You're falling behind!"

Before his words fully registered, Ruffnut had spun on her heel and landed a boney-knuckled punch to her brother's arm. It was nothing personal—just a conditioned reaction to his voice.

"You're the one who's falling behind," she jeered. She left him rubbing his shoulder as she raced ahead.

"Guys!" Snotlout called from a higher elevation with hands cupped around his mouth. "They want us by the Northern Banks!"

"Ugh, you know what that means," Tuffnut griped.

"All the fun stuff is happening at the lower banks," Astrid sighed, but she was never one to disobey orders and she too followed Snotlout's jogging form.

Fishlegs ambled behind them at a slower pace. "It'll raise our chances of surviving plus twenty and the likelihood—"

"Shut _up_!" Ruffnut heard someone snap. It took her a minute to realize it was her own voice.

**######## ########**

* * *

Usually one could tell when a raid had ended. A calming energy would sweep the village, one of relief and sobriety that always began with the fading silhouettes of flightful dragons and ended with a tally of how much livestock remained.

Unless, of course, Hiccup got out.

Ruffnut didn't know how it happened. Somehow, just as the dragons were leaving, chaos ensued. Crashes, crunches, screams...

She and her friends returned from their assigned position under the impression that the coast was clear, only to see a path of fire no dragon had ever left before. It crushed boardwalks and stables, took out the side of a fisherman's shack, and appeared to have ended right in the hull of a knarr.

Vikings gathered with heads that shook and murmurs rich with disapproval. Loudest of all was Stoick the Vast, deep in delivering a much-deserved public tongue-lashing to his son.

The teens gathered by the steps of the mill. It gave them a fair view of Hooligan Harbor, now riddled with the flaming remains of a former warship, as well as some measure of reception to Stoick's words.

"Wow..." Snotlout chuckled. "Just...wow. This has got to be a new record."

"Holy crap, he sunk a ship! He _actually_ sunk a ship," Tuffnut cackled. Ruffnut felt the smile on her face stretch her cheeks.

_That was __**awesome**__._

"It's not funny," Astrid said in a low voice. "We need these resources to rebuild homes—not rebuild ships that are never the targets!"

Snotlout immediately began nodding. "You know, you're totally right, Astrid. I was thinking the same thing. Isn't it funny how we're always on the same page like that? Just...like-minded."

Ruffnut tore her eyes away from the sight of Stoick dragging a babbling Hiccup up the hill to give Snotlout an incredulous look. She wasn't the only one; she caught her brother's gaze overhead. Tuffnut rolled his eyes.

"Why don't we just hide the sheep on the ship?" Fishlegs took up his earlier burble. "They never attack the ships...so when they come they'll just, you know, hover around the village all confused. That way we can shoot them out of the sky _and_ save our food."

Ruffnut had to admit: it was a fair idea. Tuffnut began flapping his hands.

"Oh! Shhh—_shh_! They're coming!" He gestured to the hulking, stomping figure of the chief. Stoick had a hand fisted in the shirt of his son, hauling the boy along like one would a day's catch.

_"—just outside of Raven's point—"_

The sky had brightened to the point where Ruffnut could get a readable assessment of the damage Hiccup had caused. Her eyes drifted from the ruined ship to the prattling, undersized teen and her brain tried to make the connection.

How could someone so tiny be so destructive? It was both horrifying and magnificent in its madness.

"Stop!" Stoick shouted to Hiccup's rush of excuses. Really, no one ever understood what Hiccup spoke of; for all Ruffnut knew, he could have been listing off bread ingredients.

"Every time yeh step outside disaster falls. Can yeh nae see I have bigger problems tae worry about? Winter is almost here 'n' I have an _entire_ village tae feed!"

Should Stoick the Vast _ever_ raise his voice to her like that, Ruffnut was not above admitting that she would probably wet her leggings. The same went for her brother and Fishlegs and Snotlout. Even Astrid would cower—though it'd be hard to tell how much of that would be actual fear and how much would be submission. The girl _loved _authority.

But not Hiccup. Hiccup shrugged as someone would when asked about a simple weapon preference.

"Eh," he leaned in towards his father, "between you and me the village could do with a little _less_ feeding, don't ya think?"

Ruffnut choked on the laugh that struck her throat. She had _some_ social etiquette. This was not the time nor place—

A number of her neighbors had gasped and placed hands to their rotund bellies. Her father was right at the forefront, stupefied at the very concept of being overweight and patting his stomach in bemusement. She watched as he glanced down, perhaps just then realizing that he had not seen his toes in a good decade.

It couldn't be helped; Ruffnut doubled over laughing.

Tuffnut began his own low chuckle.

"Oh, he is so dead," he said under his breath as Stoick really began to lay into Hiccup. Hiccup made a rather violent gesture with his hands—Ruffnut could no longer hear what he said due to an inability to breathe—and the grin forming on Tuffnut's face filled with malice.

"Oooh, that was good," Ruffnut said as she wiped the wetness from her eye that came during her fit. "Did you see dad's face?"

Finally, someone other than herself pointed out that growing girth—and it was during a public shaming at that.

Tuffnut ignored her. His attention had set on the pariah being marched past them by Gobber.

"Quite the performance," he snarked.

Hiccup didn't react; he kept eyes on the ground. Ruffnut felt a _little_ bad. Just a little. Hiccup had mastered the doe-eyes.

With her chuckles dying, Ruffnut knocked Tuffnut in the shoulder. Her brother never lost the hard grin. He turned and met her reproving gaze, challenging her.

"If we don't kick him down he'll just keep doing it," he said without remorse. Tuffnut liked kicking people down a little too much.

"If we _keep_ kicking him down, he might get used to it," she whispered back. "We want to be effective."

_"I've never seen anyone mess up that badly," _Ruffnut heard Snotlout jeer. _"That helped!"_

Tuffnut nudged her. "He probably likes being kicked down...knowing him."

_"Thank you, thank you. I was trying, so..."_

Ruffnut grinned when Gobber shoved Snotlout to the ground with one hand. She planned on having that kind of power as well someday; it still took both arms for her to knock down the stocky boy.

Astrid sighed—the loud sort that clearly asked for attention—and stood from her seat. She didn't believe in giving Hiccup any attention when he did stupid things; she thought it would encourage him.

"Come on, let's train." Astrid spoke as if they were expected to follow her.

Snotlout spun on the spot and Ruffnut was bitterly reminded that it was a valid expectation with this crowd.

"Of course! Yes! Training!" said Snotlout eagerly. "Just wait until you see this new move my dad taught me with the sword. You're going to love it, Astrid."

"If it's that thing you did last night then I don't think she's going to be impressed," Fishlegs warned him.

"Shut up, Fish!" Snotlout snapped just as Astrid said: "Don't speak for me."

"Rather train than get asked to help clean up," Tuffnut said to Ruffnut and he followed after their gang, not bothering to see if she would accompany them.

Ruffnut lingered in their wake and watched Hiccup continue his trek of defeat. He looked so small next to Gobber, so beaten down by the weight of an entire village's disappointment, and Ruffnut would have found it easy to feel sorry for such an underdog...had the destroyed warship not been in her line of sight.

For the first time Ruffnut Thorsten saw an advantage in keeping Hiccup locked up all the time. He was on the fast track from 'village screw-up' to 'menace to society' and the only thing that seemed to rein him in was constant supervision.

It was kind of hot.

**####### ########**

* * *

"Welcome tae dragon training!"

Gobber's bellow had just the right amount of theatrics at just the right volume to stimulate the new trainees. Ruff shared a look with her brother and hoped she didn't reflect the same mindless face of marvel. She probably did.

"No turning back," Astrid muttered. She was the first to take a step into the area having pushed her way to the front of the group just before Gobber lifted the gate. Astrid liked to be the first to do everything.

Gods, did she have to take everything so seriously? Ruffnut quelled the urge to yank on the girl's braid. Stupid, stuck-up—

And then the absolute magnificence of the Kill Ring struck her. It was huge and wide and spoke of sacred, bloody tales. Every champion to date had killed a Nightmare in here. Every hero praised in their traditional songs started out _here_.

"I'm hoping for some serious burns!" Tuffnut declared. He made a small fist pump at his hip.

Ruffnut nodded. "I'm hoping for some mauling like...on my shoulder, or lower back..."

Buttrumpet had the most _beautiful_ array of scars on her shoulder. They splayed out in a pattern that sort of looked like a flower. She claimed it was from a Scauldron. Ever since she saw it Ruffnut wanted one.

_What if dragons could take requests?_

"Yeah, it's only fun if you get a scar out of it," Astrid added in and Ruffnut knew she also had Buttrumpet in mind. Astrid was present as well when the scars were shown off.

There was no way in Hel Ruffnut was letting Astrid get one before _she_ could—

"Yeah, I know, right? Pain...love it."

_By Freyja's ballbusting grip._

Ruffnut's head whipped around so fast that one of her braids hit Fishlegs in the face.

For a moment, she could only stare in bewilderment—in _disbelief_—with her jaw slack. What was he doing here? _What the hel was he doing here?_ He was going to get himself killed!

And possibly _them_ by association.

Her brother had a similar, albeit more disparaging, reaction.

"Oh great—who let _him_ in?"

Ruffnut didn't even hear Gobber's words—didn't care if they were instructions or insults. She watched, dumbstruck, as Hiccup stepped into the area carrying an axe with two hands. His grip near the head was strained in his effort to appear stronger than he actually was.

She wanted to massage the headache budding in her temple but she was still too shocked to properly move. Hiccup was a cute kid—Ruffnut had known, even acknowledged, this for years—but he was useless. He was disastrous. He was _harmful_. He was meant to stay in the forge and keep looking cute. In fact, as far as Ruffnut was concerned, Hiccup's _only_ purpose in life was to be looked at. Occasionally put down to keep him from getting ideas, but on the whole he should not participate in regular Viking activities. He'd never survive out here. Who's idea was this? Certainly not Hiccup's; she had rarely seen him look more mutinous.

Gobber did something with his hook and Hiccup flinched, curling in around his axe.

Ruffnut groaned. Damn it all—he _was_ cute. This was like putting a kitten in a rink of dragons. It was going to be a meathouse.

"Hiccup already killed a Night Fury, so, does that disqualify him...or...?"

Ruffnut snorted into her hand—both at the reminder of Hiccup's ridiculous claim and Snotlout's barb. Snotlout had his moments; she'd give him that.

Hiccup bit his lip and she had to turn away. She was here to fight, to prove how insanely badass she was, she didn't need his revoltingly adorable mannerisms distracting her.

_Ugh_, yet another reason why he shouldn't be around. Why couldn't he just stay in the forge where he belonged? If she were lucky, the boys would ridicule him back into the smithy to stay.

They lined up as Gobber introduced each dragon. Fishlegs yammered away facts no body cared about, her brother squinted at every gestured door as though there were instructional runes on each one, Astrid had her axe gripped tight and her legs in a readied stance. Ruffnut tried to mimic her...just in case.

It took forever, or maybe it seemed so because Ruffnut kept sneaking glances down their line to see if Hiccup was still there, but Gobber finally announced the Gronkle. He gripped the lever to its door.

"Wha—!" Snotlout's gasp broke Ruffnut's concentration. "Whoa—whoa—wait! Aren't you gonna teach us first?"

_Crap—he was right._

"I believe in learnin' on the job."

_Double crap._

And suddenly there was a huge Gronkle flying at Ruffnut's face. The line broke and the teens scattered. Ruffnut could hear Gobber saying something but she didn't rightly care; she only cared about staying on the opposite side of the arena from the Gronkle until she could figure out the best way to attack it.

"Quick! What's the first thing yer goin' tae need?" Gobber shouted the question and it had a calming effect over the group; Ruffnut felt her head clear. Her brother and Snotlout were on either side of her, both stooped and staring at the rolling Gronkle. They weren't in any immediate danger.

"A doctor?" _Adorable. But Dumb._

"Plus five speed?" _What does that even __**mean**__?_

"A shield." Astrid didn't pose her response as a question. She spoke it with finality, crouched and ready to dash to the shields because she knew she was right. _Brat._

"Shield! Go!"

Ruffnut saw the shield she wanted right at the top of the pile—orange flames and two skulls. She dove; her fingers touched the metal rim just as her brother grabbed it from the other side.

"Let go of my shield" Tuffnut snapped. He yanked. She yanked back.

"There are like a million shields!" she snarled. Here she was, trying to show the world her prowess as a shieldmaiden, and her stupid brother tried to steal her thunder.

Tuffnut did not relinquish. "Take that one—there's a flower on it. Girls like flowers."

_MUCUS DRIP!_

Ruffnut didn't question why Vikings would even _have_ a flowered shield. She ripped the shield from Tuffnut's grip and slammed it on top of his helmet. His knees buckled.

"Oops," she simpered falsely, "now this one has blood on it."

She held it out to show the invisible blood and Tuffnut latched on once more.

Damn it all—_why did she just give it back to him?_

Then something slammed into her, sending shockwaves up her arm and spinning her on the spot. Her knees collided with the ground—her _face_ collided with the ground. It hurt.

The world still spun even when she thought she stopped moving.

"Ruffnut, Tuffnut—yer out!"

"What?" she mumbled. _How could they be out?_

"Crap," her brother hissed. "Com'on..."

She allowed Tuffnut to pull her out of the danger zone.

Crap, crap, crap—_out already_. The first ones out!

She stomped to the side of the arena to stand by Gobber's side. The hulk of a man didn't spare either twin a look, too busy hollering at the other trainees. Ruffnut tuned him out; she wanted to stew. Her legs hurt from landing on them and her arms hurt from having the shield wrenched from her hold so forcefully.

She watched the other trainees circle the Gronkle without actually seeing anything.

_First out. How __**embarrassing**__._

Fishlegs had a dopey grin on his face for answering a question right. He was taken out next.

Snotlout had directed his attention to Astrid—_idiot_—and it cost him. He trudged to Tuffnut's side, rubbing his butt from a hard fall. Ruffnut's attention was now on the "survivors".

In an echo of his cousin's behavior, Hiccup attempted to chat up Astrid in the middle of the exercise. The only two left in the ring were huddled together, making it all too easy for the Gronkle to direct its attention on them.

Astrid realized the error almost as soon as she came to a stop by Hiccup's side. She left him as quickly as she came.

Ruffnut curled a lip. The trollop just rolled away!

Would she have done the same? Probably. But it was so much easier to direct anger at Astrid when the other girl was still in the game.

"Hiccup!"

Ruffnut soon found it hard to direct her anger at _anyone_ because, rather than pursuing Astrid, the Gronkle continued to trail Hiccup—who happened to chase his run-away shield into a corner.

"Oh no," Fishlegs whimpered.

Ruffnut felt the same horror she heard in the large boy's voice. She couldn't move, too fascinated and too horrified to do anything more than watch the Gronkle give its cornered prey a couple of sniffs.

Its mouth opened and Gobber acted.

Ruffnut had never seen anyone move on a prostatic so quickly. One minute Gobber was just feet away from her and the next he had his hook in the Gronkle's mouth, re-directing its blast to a spot just above Hiccup's head.

Gobber continued to tug the struggling dragon to its cage, exposing Hiccup—who was still cowered on the ground with thin arms to cradle his head.

"Shit..." Snotlout breathed. He voiced the sentiments of all the onlookers, including the relief no one expected to feel. Seeing someone killed by a dragon wasn't quite as fun as hearing about it.

The slamming of a cage door told the trainees they were safe once more.

"Remember!" Gobber barked at them. He was back at Hiccup's side, dwarfing the boy much in the same way the Gronkle had. "Dragons will always, _always_ go for the kill. Off with yeh now! We'll meet for náttmál tae discuss yer miserable performances. I expect all o' yeh tae be there!"

The trainees needed no further instruction and accepted the dismissal.

"Whoa..." Tuffnut grinned as he gathered his spear from against the wall. "Did you see that? That was _insane_!"

Astrid frowned and followed after him. "It almost took his head off. He shouldn't be here."

Ruffnut held back the urge to voice her agreement. Astrid got enough mindless acceptance from Snotlout.

"What do you think the chief would say if he came back from the hunt and Hiccup was dead?" Fishlegs asked in undertones so that Gobber would not hear. The very thought of Stoick's reaction distressed the blond with nervous fidgeting.

"That I'll be next in line," Snotlout boasted with a tone that suggested the answer should have been obvious.

Ruffnut followed the group at a slower pace and, with her curiosity becoming too much for her, risked a look over her shoulder.

Hiccup stood where Gobber left him, his face leaned towards the scorch-mark's cooling embers. With his attention turned away from her, Ruffnut allowed herself to openly observe him—something she felt compelled to do from his very expression, because Hiccup didn't look scared at nearly having his head blasted in. He didn't look embarrassed for failing so horribly in front of his peers. He didn't look angry for letting a Gronkle get the best of him.

He looked...intrigued.

And this intrigued Ruffnut because it took a certain sort of mentality to analyze a near-death scenario, as he appeared to be doing. She'd know. She was bat-shit crazy.

**######## ########**

* * *

"Alright yeh sorry bunch o' Nadder nuggets—let's talk about how horrible yeh are at handlin' Gronkles."

"Yipee," Ruffnut muttered under her breath. Her brother knocked back the rest of his mead to express a similar opinion.

Fishlegs raised a hand.

"Yes Fishlegs?" Gobber deadpanned, half expecting the boy to bring up something completely unrelated.

"Where's Hiccup?" Fishlegs asked and Ruffnut felt the strange, practically foreign sense that he was picking up her thoughts. She wanted to know the same thing, but no way would she ask it.

"Cannae find him," the blacksmith grunted. "But whit we need tae focus on now is _you_. Disgraceful! All o' yeh. _You_ two—"

Neither Ruffnut nor her brother reacted to the thick finger pointed at them. Gobber opened his mouth and froze.

"Ah, nae even worth it," he settled on.

_Ouch._

"'Lout—what did yeh do wrong?"

"Uh..."

"He wasn't focused," Astrid intoned. She sounded annoyed and likely found Snotlout's flirting with her absolutely inappropriate. Which it was.

"And Fishlegs?"

Tuffnut volunteered the answer. "He screamed and ran like a—"

"I won't do it again!" Fishlegs swore. He swore that every time. He never followed through.

"Right," Gobber sighed. "Where did Astrid go wrong today?"

"I mistimed my summersault," Astrid answered, brusque and solemn. "It was sloppy. It threw off my reverse tumble."

Ugh, even when she was critiquing herself Astrid sounded like she was bragging.

"Yeah, we noticed," Ruffnut muttered sarcastically.

_Not everyone cares about what _you_ do Astrid._

"No, no—it was so _Astrid_," Snotlout fawned. Ruffnut thought her eyes would roll back into their sockets if she could roll them anymore.

_Good gods, man, have some pride!_

She faced away from the group and rested her cheek on her hand. It was going to be a long meal.

And then Loki himself answered her silent prayer. There was Hiccup—wet, somber, and materializing from the shadows of the Hall like a draugr. Ruffnut shivered at the thought and felt a predatory urge spark within her stomach. She sat up, bewildered and piqued by his appearance.

Hiccup swung by unannounced, grabbed the single, untouched plate of meat and kept walking, not giving any of their group a spare glance. Snotlout looked positively delighted.

"Where did Hiccup go wrong?" Gobber asked. Hiccup would clearly be punished for his late arrival.

"Uh, he showed up?" Ruffnut snarked. She couldn't help it; that idiot boy had a death wish—and looking at him now, so wet and hunched and frail, he was stupid for ever stepping foot in that ring. What was the fool _thinking_?

"He didn't get eaten," Tuffnut added.

"He's never where he should be," Astrid said in an amazing voice replica of a chiding parent.

For once, Ruffnut had to audibly agree with her.

"Yep."

Gobber smacked her in the back of the head.

**######## ########**

Part one of four.

I know the whole 'movie from someone else's perspective' fad has come and gone, but this is something I have been sitting on for many, many months. I simply couldn't post it until I had finished all my Hitchups business. I was inspired to first write it from listenting to the movie on my ipod while I did manual labor at my old job. Hearing the dialogue over and over again got me curious about different characters...and how other certain friendships may have developed over the course of the movie.

I studied all the characters' words, and mannerisms, and interactions with one another to make this as accurate as possible. _This isn't meant to be a retelling of the movie._ I only write out scenes where Ruffnut and Hiccup interacted directly but there should be more "off screen" material than on. More so in the next three installments.

Please note: Ruffnut doesn't hate Astrid. She's a teenage girl with a teenage girl mind.

Most importantly **this is canon**. I'm not going to have the characters do anything they didn't do in the movie.

Sooo... let me know what you think!


	2. Meeny

**Meeny**

Had Hiccup not been involved with the current season of dragon training, the odds of their practice maze staying intact for the duration of the exercise would have increased tenfold.

According to Fishlegs, at any rate.

"Git tae the edge!" Gobber barked down at them before the braids of his mustache slipped over the bar and out of sight.

The trainees were way ahead of the blacksmith. Ruffnut and her brother had taken refuge behind an already fallen panel. A ways down Fishlegs and Snotlout were pressed against the stone wall.

"This kid..." Ruffnut muttered. She watched wall after wall topple over in a catastrophic wave while Hiccup stood in the middle of it all, uncaring.

Tuffnut sidled up to her side, sniggering.

"Tell me about it," he said. "It'd be awesome if he could control this and direct it towards the dragons."

Ruffnut silently wretched as a rotten stench invaded her nose for the second time that day.

"Ugh," Her hand connected with Tuffnut's face and she shoved him away. "I thought I told _you_ to stay away from me until Laugardagur?"

Tuffnut bounced back from her shove to "And I told you I'm working on my stink balls!"

"There's no such—"

"HICCUP!"

Both of the twins snapped their attention to Astrid. The girl had just taken a daring leap from the final falling barrier—_how did she even get up there?_. Astrid dodged the talons of the Nadder, who skidded overhead, and landed directly on top of Hiccup.

"OH!" Snotlout hooted from his safe spot. He bit his knuckles to keep from losing it, which really only served to augment the hilarity of the situation.

Ruffnut felt her face split into a wide grin; the biggest since Hiccup sunk the ship days earlier. Astrid was flustered and angry, Hiccup was stuttering and bewildered. This was a scene she would replay in her mind over and over again.

"Oooh, love on the battle field!" Tuffnut crowed. Hiccup must have heard him for his cheeks splotched with red.

"She could do better," Ruffnut whispered to her brother. Astrid _should_ do better. A girl like her would only take the best. She had no business looking at someone like Hiccup. "Look how red he's getting. It looks like he can't breath."

"Astrid must be getting fat," Tuffnut observed. He sounded a little too appreciative of the fact so Ruffnut punched him.

Suddenly there was a 'thwack' and an explosion of wood and Ruffnut's attention turned to a defeated and limping Nadder. Astrid stood in its wake, tall, her breath heavy with victory and exertion. The girl tracked the dragon's movement with wary eyes lest it return for another attack.

Gobber came barreling into the ring at that point. He spotted the limping Nadder and immediately set to guiding it to its cage while it was still dazed.

Once confident that all immediate danger had passed, Astrid whirled on Hiccup. The boy had yet to move from his fetal position; a submissive pose that made it all too easy for Astrid to vent her frustrations on the one trainee who refused to properly participate in any exercise.

Ruffnut tried to take comfort in the public berating. Something about her brother's comments had upset her and she couldn't quite pinpoint _what_. Astrid continued yelling down at Hiccup and Hiccup took it with a pout on his face...still on the ground, still curled in a ball that did nothing to help his lack of stature.

_He **was** useless,_ Ruffnut found herself admitting. He was counterproductive in any situation...

And that was when an idea struck Ruffnut. A crazy, brazen, _wonderful_ idea that she just might pull off. An idea that had seeded within her mind ever since she fully appreciated Hiccup's misguided destructive power, one that triggered mental responses from her she was not prepared for and colored opinions she had previously over looked.

No woman would want Hiccup. He was not a Viking no matter how one spun it. He was a disaster and more trouble than any sane woman would want under her household. Most would find it disgraceful to marry a man with no prowess to his name.

...not prowess of the right sort, anyway.

However, _he was still next in line to be chief._

But-no-one-would-want-him-but-he-would-be-chief—_Hiccup could belong to her—!_

_Brilliance!_

Excitement tickled Ruffnut's stomach at the thought. A rush had taken over her blood—the type she got when she stood on the cliffs of the jumping gorge—and it came too fast. A mess of unsavory and impossible ideas began to topple over one another within her head. She was getting ahead of herself for no good reason and she knew it, but why would she need a good reason to feel this way?

It was inspired. It could work. She could keep him inside—keep him from causing too much trouble. He could make political decisions but she would do all the fighting. It was perfect.

"_What_ are you smiling about?"

Tuffnut stared at her with a face of disgust. Ruffnut could only imagine the look that must have slipped onto her face.

"Women stuff," she grunted. It was all she had to say. Tuffnut spun on his heel and wandered over to Snotlout's side.

"I'm getting a drink," Astrid announced. She said it with the exasperation of a Viking warrior who had been in battle for a fortnight. She probably thought dealing with Hiccup was enough to warrant a tankard of mead. It was sound logic.

"I'm coming!" Snotlout announced. "Damn, Astrid, that was amazing! I mean, if _I_ had hit it like that its head probably would have popped right off, but that was pretty cool for a girl. We should hit things together sometime. Just you and me and some Nadders..."

Astrid looked like she would need two drinks.

"I don't think you possess the arm strength to pop a Nadder's head off," Fishlegs said. At Snotlout's forbidding look he added, "I'm just saying, it would take...oh fine. I'm coming too."

"If yeh leave now yer cleanin' this place up first thing in th' mornin'!" Gobber called after the retreating party. "'N' yer all tae be at th' watch tower this evenin'._ No excuses!_"

For the third time Ruffnut followed behind at a slower pace for the sole purpose of sneaking in a look at Hiccup.

...At least this new habit had a purpose now.

The boy had just picked himself off of the ground. His hands slowly brushed dirt from his tunic with hunched shoulders. Ruffnut got the distinct impression he meant to waste time to separate more from their group. As though sensing her gaze, Hiccup turned and caught her eye. Ruffnut needn't be embarrassed for having been caught staring; Hiccup reacted like a skittish cat and quickly looked away.

Odd. Ruffnut recalled just moments ago when the entire maze was collapsing and Hiccup stood talking to Gobber like they were relaxing in the Mead Hall. Yet, here he was: meek when all was calm. It was like the kid thrived on high-energy situations. Interesting...

Ruffnut felt her lips arch into a smirk. She left Hiccup to whatever asinine scheme he had brewing in his head and headed towards the Mead Hall for her own tankard.

Astrid was too far-sighted to see any sort of potential in Hiccup; she would never find worth in his careless behavior, never value entertainment over use. It was the single disparaging quality about her that Ruffnut planned to exploit.

_No_, she thought with gathered assurance,_ Astrid would never go for Hiccup._

She would count on it.

**######## ########**

* * *

Hiccup showed up at the campfire late. He was _always_ late. Ruffnut was fine with this as it allowed her to observe him without coming off as weird for watching him so closely. Everyone stared at the last person to enter a room—it was practically a rule.

Hiccup avoided eye contact with Astrid—probably still embarrassed from the lashing she gave him that morning—and took an empty seat at Tuffnut's side. Her brother never took his attention away from his chicken, too engrossed with flavor and Gobber's stories to bother with anything else.

Ruffnut loved to hear Gobber's crazy anecdotes as much as anyone else but tonight she only listened with one ear. Her plan to get Hiccup had excited her in ways she didn't know she could be excited; it caught her off guard and left her more inattentive than usual. It was a new rush, this subtle kind of hunt. It was a daring and stirring game and if she pulled it off...

Well, there could only be benefits from being the chief's wife, couldn't there?

Ruffnut used the fire between them as a thin barrier to continue her observations. Hiccup kept his attention on his fish and his eyes downcast. Ruffnut found that she liked how Hiccup always seemed to stare at the ground; he would never catch _her_ staring. He had a cuteness about him usually found on younger kids—a pouty face and cheeks that still held onto baby fat. But there was potential. His face wasn't riddled with pimples as most of her peers were and his scent wasn't altogether unpleasant which made his proximity more tolerable than half the tribe's. His face was relatively symmetrical and he had, if nothing else, an impressive lineage. Ruffnut couldn't see Hiccup as a great warrior or taking down dragons, but she could see him as arm candy—really, that's all she would need for a husband. The fighting could be left to her, no problem.

Entertainment value and physical appeal were qualities few women had the sense to hold in esteem.

A good portion of Ruffnut's day had been spent trying to find Hiccup and get this ball of a brilliant plan rolling. He wasn't in the forge and he wasn't in his home—and she knew he hadn't hid from her in either location because she broke in to ensure as much. She may have gotten a bit distracted with rifling through his things. He had an irrational number of books—several of which written by his own hand—disjointed notes, and blue prints. His weaponry designs delighted her; they made no sense but they looked cool and had awesome names. It only served to further her interest in The Plan.

"Alright! I'm off tae bed!" Gobber announced. The spike in volume shocked Ruffnut from her reverie. "You should be too. Tomorrow we'll get tae th' big boys—slowly but surely makin' our way up tae th' Monstrous Nightmare. But who will have th' honor o' killing it?"

Ruffnut had pushed herself up from her lounge. If she won it...it would prove to Stoick that she would make a great protector for Hiccup!

_More excitement!_ This plan practically created itself!

Predictably, her brother was the first ignoramus to open his mouth.

"It's gonna be me," he said with his signature cocky attitude. He laid his skewered chicken against the fire barrier and rested his hands behind his head. "It's my destiny. See?"

Ruffnut didn't bother to look at the red dragon tattoo on his arm; her attention was on the steaming fish resting on the seat Hiccup once occupied.

She sat up straighter.

_Where the Hel did he go?_ Only his fish remained. A little over done for her tastes but she could finish for him. If she ate something _he_ ate...it would be like an indirect kiss.

_Oh gods, she was already too into this half-cocked plan for her own good._

Fishlegs gasped. "Your mom let you get a tattoo?"

Sure, Hiccup was a little _young_, but it wasn't like she had a line of suitors either. Men thought she was crazy and women would never be interested in Hiccup. Simple, irrefutable facts. He was a disaster. She was...unappealing. They would make a great match—like two leftovers stuck together so that no one else would have to suffer them.

Really, she was doing the village a favor by taking him off the market.

Not to mention she would get the title of_ 'chief's wife'_, which was better than anyone in the village would have expected from her.

Ruffnut rubbed her legs together as her plan ran chills throughout her body. Man, she was a _genius_. How had this not occurred to her before?

Probably the same reason it never occurred to anyone else—the cons didn't outweigh the pros to most minds.

_"It's not a tattoo, it's a birthmark."_

Unfortunately, as long as her idiot brother was nearby and talking she wouldn't be able to indulge in these fantasies.

"Okay, I've been stuck with you since birth and that was never there before," she said.

She was with him when he got it, for Thor's sake.

"Yes it _was_," Tuffnut said. He sent her a mean look that begged her to shut up. "You've just never seen me from the left side until now."

Snotlout peered forward. "It wasn't there yesterday. Is it a birthmark or a today-mark?"

"Birthmarks aren't _red_ numbnuts," Ruffnut droned.

Naturally, this set Fishlegs off.

"Oh—oh they _could_ be—" The blond's babble faded as Ruffnut's attention yanked toward the rampway where Astrid just emerged to _rejoin_ their group.

Ruffnut's felt her shoulders tense. She watched the girl return to her seat and some instinctive part of her mind grew suspicious. When had Astrid gotten up? _Why_ had she? And was it coincidental to Hiccup leaving? Did Astrid know where Hiccup went?

Ruffnut didn't voice anything, of course. She watched Astrid with great scrutiny as the girl reclaimed her seat. Astrid showed no outward sign of being interested in anything but her half-eaten chicken leg and disabusing Tuffnut of the notion that he would kill the Nightmare.

"—Too good for him," Ruffnut whispered to herself. Because it was true.

Hiccup may have eyes for Astrid—t_here was something wrong with that Horrendous Haddock line_—but even he knew what he was and wasn't capable of. He wasn't capable of attaining Astrid because Hiccup was as useful as a squirrel.

...And kind of looked like one if Ruffnut were to be honest with herself.

People didn't marry squirrels. Certainly not people who gave a damn about image. Fact of life.

**######## ########**

* * *

Ruffnut abandoned her brother. She didn't care if his arm was bleeding or how badly he limped or how hard he coughed, because Hiccup just defeated a Zippleback. _Using his mind._

At least, that was what Fishlegs insisted had happened. As annoying as the chatterbox could be, Ruffnut simply could not find any other way to describe it. The Ingerman heir had not stopped muttering under his breath since the unreal victory; most of it made no sense—witchcraft and alpha fera-moans—but with no explanations volunteering themselves in _her_ mind, Ruffnut was inclined to believe something from _his_.

And mind control made the most sense.

Why else would a two-headed dragon cower away from Hiccup of all people?

It could have been a fluke—no matter the confidence he showed once the Zippleback started to move, as if he had been expecting something to work. Astrid certainly tried to call it a fluke, as did Snotlout. Her brother thought the Zippleback was just defective.

Just when Ruffnut was inclined to believe a justifiable explanation could cover the event—one that _didn't_ involve Hiccup having any sort of skill—the screw up did it again. This time with a Gronkle. And it was better than before. The beast had stopped at his hand and then keeled over. Hiccup carried no weapons on him, wore no helmet. He attended training with just his frail little body and his sheer daring. Ruffnut felt bizarre swoops in her stomach whenever he passed her now. She didn't care _what_ anyone said of him; it took a certain breed of _man_ to do that. With any luck she would already have him by the time anyone else realized this.

It had gotten increasingly hard for her to track him down, both for the amount of attention he garnered over the passing days and his determination not to be seen outside of the Ring. He would pose excuses, dazzle them with unexplainable feats and then run off while they were still off foot. He could be seen dipping in and out of the forge, occasionally in the Mead Hall, sometimes the lights of his home were on late into the night—but Hiccup had become a master of evading anyone who might be looking for him in the off-training hours.

Ruffnut quickly learned that she wasn't the only one looking. Astrid would skulk around Hiccup's usual haunts from time to time, likely trying to expose him for some sort of tomfoolery.

Ruffnut really didn't care what Astrid did—seeing the former star so flustered by Hiccup only bought the boy more points in her book. Ruffnut only cared that she got Hiccup's attention _now_. She needed him to notice her, to see her as wife potential. She needed to plant the seed that would—hopefully—one day grow into an acceptable marriage offer. Competition was not an issue. Compatibility was not an issue. Unforeseen complications were the only obstacle she worried about.

She could be getting a pet squirrel and a comfortable life in one go. That, to her, was more appealing than mucking stables or churning butter. So Ruffnut would skip her chores and she would try her hand at finding Hiccup during different hours, aiming to catch him away from the Ring and away from his growing group of admirers just once.

Then the day came when Ruffnut got her timing just right. It was late afternoon, Vikings were running off to nattmal and Hiccup was in the forge. _By himself._

It was almost too good to be true. Not wanting to seem overeager for no apparent reason, Ruffnut approached the shop slowly. She gave her surroundings a subtle glance to make sure she had some semblance of privacy. The hill was clear.

Her forearms rested on the open shop window and she leaned her head inside. Gobber was nowhere in sight. It was just Hiccup in the dimly lit forge, hunched over a workbench and packing away some tools into a satchel.

Ruffnut used Hiccup's moment of inattentiveness to think of a good greeting. Should she shout and scare him? She did find it entertaining how high he could jump without having to bend his knees...like a startled cat. Or she could try something sultry to get him to start looking at her like a woman and not as the crazy twin with breasts.

She could continue her furtive approach and enter the smithy—blow in his ear, throw him in a headlock, slap on some fetters she might find lying around in the forge.

Just to try them out. After all, if Hiccup insisted on wreaking havoc on the village then surely restraints would be in order. It would be a public service. Stoick would like her for it. She would like _herself_ for it. Hiccup would learn to like it. She could have a special room for those sorts of occasions...

_Damn it!_ There she went again—getting ahead of herself. Ruffnut decided to go with the "relatively normal" greeting, if only to keep her head.

"Hey there."

Despite her efforts Hiccup still gave a violent jerk at the unexpected voice. He whirled, positively alarmed to see her.

"Oh! Ruff—Ruffnut, Hi..." He paused, bleak. He glanced at the tools he had collected and back to her. "What are you doing here?"

She shrugged and leaned a little further over the wood counter. "I thought I would stop by and say 'Hi'."

"Oh," he said again. He still had the same blank look on his face. "Well... Hi."

Something about Hiccup's mannerisms read as antsy. He kept one hand on his packed tools and exuded a nervous energy. He was in a hurry.

Too bad she wasn't.

Ruffnut traced a nail along the grain of the wood.

"I was also wondering if you...might give me some tips for dealing with the dragons," she asked. Play dumb. Classic tactic. That and she was too damn curious not to ask. She thought it prudent to add, "_Your_ way, I mean. I already know how to do it the way you can't."

Hiccup's lingering surprise fell to a flat stare.

"Well maybe you can't do it _my_ way," he said with a small amount of contempt. He turned back to his bag and tied its secure-string with a vehemence that emphasized finality.

She had upset him. It was cute.

The sound of feet hitting beaten dirt a little too close behind him had Hiccup spinning around again. As he had feared, Ruffnut had hopped the counter. The girl took great delight in seeing his eyes pop.

"What are you doing?" Hiccup yelped. The small of his back was to the worktable. His hands gripped its edge behind him.

Ruffnut grinned. "Getting a better look at you."

Hiccup seemed to curl in on himself in an act of self-consciousness.

"You _know_ what I look like."

"I do," Ruffnut conceded. "But now that everyone else is looking at you I want to make sure they're seeing what I'm seeing."

She took another step towards him. The sun setting at her back half-covered his face with her shadow.

"Yeah it's...great to be noticed," Hiccup mumbled. He had trouble meeting her eyes the closer she got and had taken to glancing around the forge in an effort to pretend he couldn't see her.

Ruffnut smirked and pressed further. She could see that the top of his head leveled around her nose level. He would probably grow taller; both of his parents were tall.

She could still take on tall guys.

"I've always noticed you," Ruffnut said, frank but with a purring undertone. It was old news to her but she was hoping for a reaction out of the boy—which most likely would have come from her closing proximity. Hiccup swallowed loudly. Ruffnut watched his throat work in the motion.

"Y-you-you _have_?" His voice cracked. She smiled wider.

"Mmmmhmmm..."

She took the last steps separating them—he cast his eyes down, his fingers twitched—and she veered to the side and leant against the worktable next to him. Hiccup looked up at her in surprise. It made her wonder what he _thought_ she was going to do.

"But..." he struggled with understanding her motives. Her seeking him out in the forge probably brought on suspicion. Her behavior within his immediate vicinity, prowling around him like a hawk—_that_ brought on worry. "You were..."

Ruffnut shrugged. "You were fun to look at."

Hiccup blanched. He looked like he had swallowed something very large.

"That—I don't—"

"You know," Ruffnut started slowly, "when we were little I used to pretend you were a dragon in human form—one that we had captured like the ones in the Kill Ring—except you were kept in the blacksmith. I liked to watch you. I would wait for you to do something horrible that only a dragon would do." No harm in admitting that. Two crazy people could have a perfectly crazy conversation. "But sometimes I honestly wonder if it was true."

Hiccup's eyebrows rose with her odd confession.

"_What_?"

Ruffnut shrugged again. She felt her reasoning was sound.

"It makes sense. Did you ever think it was weird how people always tried to hide you away? Even though you look positively harmless?"

Hiccup continued to stared at her. Annoyance crept into his features, building and molding until he looked more irritated than she had ever seen him.

"Really?" he said, his voice turning loathsome. "_Really_?"

"Well, is there?"

"Is there _what_?"

"Is there a reason you weren't allowed out?"

"Holy—you're serious?" He roughly blew some air between his lips and ran a hand through his hair, disbelieving he was even having this conversation. "Because I'm a disaster! Why do you think?"

"You're not a disaster to everything. It seems you're really effective with the dragons. Do you actually have super powers?"

His eyes narrowed. "Yeah, tolerating super stupid questions."

"I will hit you. You can only control dragons—"

"I'm not doing _anything_ super, okay?" Hiccup snapped. "I can't control anything!"

He actually raised his voice to her. She had never heard him speak to anyone of their age-group like this.

Ruffnut turned and rested one arm on the worktable, now fully facing him.

"Do you even _know_ what you're doing?"

"Yeah...I'm...I'm just trying new things." His ire had left him as quickly as it came. He looked tired, concerned. "What is this? What do you want? Did Astrid put you up to this?"

He had no happy-puppy look about his face when he said Astrid's name and it brought so much joy to Ruffnut that she was willing to overlook the accusation.

"This has nothing to do with her. _I'm_ interested in you."

That was as close to a confession as she would give him. It wouldn't do for him to catch onto her plan before it was too late for him.

Hiccup pursed his lips. His eyes lowered.

"I'm not what you think I am," he said quietly to the floor.

"I think you're exactly what I think you are."

He lifted his gaze. "No, I'm not a Viking Hero—"

"You closed your eyes."

"I—what?"

"You closed your eyes," she repeated. "When the Gronkle came after you...and then didn't kill you. You just stood there and closed your eyes."

He shifted uncomfortably.

"Well, I discovered a trick and I...I can't really, explain..."

Ruffnut shook her head and held up a hand. "I don't care about the trick. I don't think you _trusted_ the trick."

"Why..." Hiccup cocked his head to the side. "What?"

He said that word a lot. _What_. For someone who apparently knew so much, Hiccup always had questions and never seemed sure of anything.

"You didn't trust that what you were about to do would work," Ruffnut explained. "You didn't know it would. That's...that's what makes it so awesome."

"I...uh, guess..." Hiccup's face had gone very red. His confidence in her insincerity had evaporated. That she had caught him so off guard assured Ruffnut that there was some truth to her words.

"You could have died," she pointed out. The phrase repeated in her mind like an echo, solidifying the point with every emphasis. She had never actually thought of that until she said it out loud.

Hiccup wet his lips and looked out the very window she entered through.

"I mean, it _was_ a dragon—"

"But you still did it!" Ruffnut was getting excited again. Seeing him do nutty things in the Ring was fun and intriguing...but there was an element of danger to it _no one else realized._

"What else am I supposed to do?" Hiccup said. He was back to monotone. He had a look in his eye that told Ruffnut she no longer had his full attention. To be honest, it probably took a lot to get Hiccup's full attention for any amount of time. He seemed trapped in his own head most hours of the day.

Ruffnut was strangely okay with this...even proud that he had looked at her with lucid eyes for some part of their conversation. She placed both hands on Hiccup's shoulders and turned him to face her.

He had gone very white very quickly. Apparently there were two ways to get Hiccup's attention: confuse him with words or touch him.

Ruffnut gave each shoulder a squeeze, fascinated with the bone she felt beneath. One just couldn't find this kind of body so far north these days.

"It's how you play the game." Her father always said that. "I think you're awesome for how you're playing, not that you're winning."

Hiccup's jaw slackened. Ruffnut knew she was capable of doing so much damage in that moment: she could hurt him, she could kiss him, she could blurt out all her secret plans to keep him shackled in their hypothetical future home together.

In a moment of great composure she released Hiccup, turned around, and left the forge the same way she entered: an easy hop through the window.

She didn't know if he ran to the doorway to watch her walk away or if he still stood where she left him, his mouth half open beneath a dopey face of shock. But Ruffnut _did_ know that she had gotten Hiccup's attention—with words and wiles.

Seed planted.

**######## ########**

* * *

Three days later and the trainees had gotten a second go at the Nadder.

The crowds grew with every dragon-involved exercise. Ruffnut should have felt nervous or excited about having such an audience but she knew that they didn't come to watch her, which she was okay with so long as she got to watch Hiccup. By some unspoken agreement, Ruffnut and the other trainees knew to step off whenever dragons approached the chief's son; they _all_ wanted to see what he would do.

With the exception of Astrid.

The former Number One knew the crowds were not for her as well but, unlike Ruffnut, Astrid was not one to enjoy the show when she couldn't be a part of it. Hiccup bested the Nadder when Astrid could not...in front of Phlegma—who's injury from the previous nest hunt prevented her from going on this one—the village Gothi, and the counsel of Elders. Astrid took that as a personal insult.

Hiccup didn't disappoint in his victory. He put the beast to sleep, which might not _sound_ undisappointing but it _looked_ undisappointing. He hit a pressure point or something crazy—that was Fishlegs' explanation and Ruffnut had taken to believing whatever the large boy claimed since Hiccup was stubbornly tightlipped about his success.

Ruffnut and her peers had stood back and did nothing when the dragon charged Hiccup, and Hiccup welcomed its advance as he had taken to doing with every dragon. The Nadder stopped without harming him—which impressed the crowd—but the look on Hiccup's face had impressed Ruffnut. Hiccup had been _hoping_ it would stop before killing him, he wasn't expecting it.

Ruffnut's heart fluttered and a goofy smile came to her face. She was starting to really love it when he tempted the Norns like that. Men who tempted were tempting men.

"It's magic!" Tuffnut began hours later. "He's been getting secret lessons from the Gothi. I've _seen_ him—"

"You have not," Astrid cut in before Tuffnut could get going on a tall tale. "He doesn't go anywhere near the Gothi."

"Yeah, she'd know," Ruffnut said under her breath.

Her voice could barely be heard over the hubbub of the Mead Hall, where they had gathered for an early dinner. Already the Hall was filled with Vikings. Villagers would usually fend for themselves when Berk was emptied for hunts but the entertainment of this season's training scenes had brought liveliness and unity to those who remained on the island.

Astrid leaned forward so that her head hovered just above the table and she could across Tuffnut.

"I'm not the _only_ one following him," Astrid reminded Ruffnut with a hiss.

_Yeah, but you're the only one trying to kill him._

None of the boys heard Astrid, too busy with their own crowing.

"He's using facts, you guys," Fishlegs insisted. It was his latest theory; Ruffnut wasn't as taken with it as his previous ones. "I think he just observed the dragons long enough to figure out their natural weaknesses—"

"No one _observes_ dragons," Snotlout sneered. "Not even Usel—er, Hiccup. _We **kill** them!_"

"Oh—oh! There's Hiccup!" Tuffnut exclaimed, waving down Snotlout's violent 'killing' gestures'. Somehow the boy in question managed to stroll right by them. Ruffnut had to hand it to the kid: he knew how to use his size to his advantage.

Snotlout had already pushed off from the table before Fishlegs could free himself from his seat. Ruffnut grabbed Tuffnut's arm and yanked him off balance, then used the same move to hop over the bench and made a beeline for the empty space at the end of Hiccup's table.

Hiccup looked up from his meal, horrified at all the people crowding in around him. Ruffnut could just barely make out Snotlout's, "What was that? Was it...was it _pointing pressure_ or something? Because—"

Ack leaned forward to hear Hiccup's answer and Ruffnut's view of the boy was cut off altogether. She untangled herself from the crush of bodies and sighed. Apparently reservations were in order when it came to sitting next to Hiccup.

From the corner of her eye Ruffnut caught Astrid slam her mug down on the table that she refused to leave.

Ruffnut grinned.

It wasn't that Ruffnut hated the girl, but Astrid's perfectionist attitude needed to be put down every now and then. It was good for her. They even used to be friends when they were little—the two girls of their age group surrounded by stupid, dirty boys. Then Astrid started training—they both did, but Astrid had talent. She got good—too good—and the time came when their childhood friendship could no longer shield the fact that Ruffnut was holding her back. The resentment grew, the jealously grew, and they drifted apart.

This was the first time Ruffnut saw Astrid so off-balance in years and it filled then young Thorston with a confidence she hadn't realized she needed. Ruffnut strolled around the edge of the crowd and pushed Liceberg out of the way so that she could stand directly behind Hiccup.

Hiccup was doing a marvelous job of embracing introversion by taking several deep sips from his drink whenever someone asked a question. Needless to say, he was running out of mead.

Ruffnut pressed in very close to his back, the weight of her front braid lessened as it rested against his body. It was Hiccup's only warning to her whisper.

"You closed your eyes again."

The din of the Mead Hall worked as a cover to give their very public conversation some privacy.

Hiccup startled halfway through his swallow and choked.

"Ah—wh-what?"

"I saw you. I was watching." Did that sound creepy? The way his hands tensed around his mug told her he was creeped out.

"What?" he hissed, now a little more conscious of their surroundings.

Ruffnut curled over him a mite further. Her arm rested across the back of his shoulders.

"When the Nadder came at you...you just closed your eyes. Then you scratched it."

She could feel the meager muscle of his back tense just before he pushed her off.

"Alright, that's it—" He stood, abandoning the villagers and their hundred questions.

It took a few sharp elbows but Hiccup eventually broke free of the suffocating admirers. He stormed toward the exit. Ruffnut pursued. She felt people follow them with their eyes—Astrid included—but she couldn't be damned about what suspicions this cast on her. Ruffnut was learning how to rile Hiccup up the same way he riled Astrid up. Innocently effective. It was great.

Hiccup sensed her behind him.

"What do you care?" he said over his shoulder as he marched past the giant, oak doors. "Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what?" Ruffnut asked. She only half-feigned the ignorance. Sometimes she wondered what _exactly_ Hiccup had reasoned for her interest.

Hiccup stopped halfway down the steps and turned on her.

"Following me—_watching_ me. Just stop! Whatever you're expecting from me, it won't happen. I told you: I'm not a Viking Hero."

Ruffnut took one step further down than Hiccup so that they were at equal height.

"I _don't_ think you're a Viking hero."

Hiccup threw his arms in the air.

"Well you think I'm _something_!"

He looked like he was going to keep walking so Ruffnut sidestepped to block his progress.

"I think you're brave," she said. She had to admit—it was a very nice thing of her to say.

The look on his face told her it went unappreciated. "You think I'm brave because you think I know what I'm doing!"

"I think you're brave because I think you _don't_."

_Got you._

Hiccup moved his mouth wordlessly. Maybe she had nailed it on the head. Maybe she made so little sense that he could think of nothing to say. Whatever the reason, Hiccup was struck dumb for the moment.

So Ruffnut gave into temptation and kissed him.

**######## ########**

* * *

Second chapter! Two more left!

Like I said to some people, this whole thing is already written so fast updates! Yay!

How's our girl doing?


	3. Miney

**Miney**

"Hey buddy, how's your nose?" Snotlout asked Tuffnut while giving his friend an unsympathetic slap on the back. He took a seat on the mill steps between the twins.

Tuffnut pulled the bloodied cloth away from his face to reveal a bulbous, red conk swollen with Terror venom.

"Why is it always _me?_" he moaned. Snotlout chuckled and gave Tuffnut's back another hard slap.

"It's the smell," Ruffnut stated immediately. She saw Snotlout nod from the corner of her eye. Tuffnut's obsession with collecting smelly bugs and mutilating them into small projectiles was an irritating situation for all who had to suffer his presence. They even had an intervention once. Tuffnut rewarded their efforts by attacking them with his prototypes.

"It's very likely that it _is_ the smell," Fishlegs put forward. "Dragons have a much higher sensitivity than humans to pungent scents—"

"Fish!" Snotlout cut him off in a sharp voice. "Just—just stop. No one knows what you're saying."

Ruffnut perked up as Astrid walked up to their gathering and sat down heavily on the stone next to her. She had a harried, defeated look about her. Her face was dirty and her hands nicked and bloodied from training, but she lacked the usual aura of self-satisfaction.

_"I mean...what the hel is plungance?"_ Snotlout carried on in the background.

"Hey," Ruffnut greeted. "Find Hiccup?"

Each girl was well aware of the other's vested interest in the village celebrity, though individual motives remained in confidence. Neither would ask so neither had to lie.

Fishlegs could be heard responding to Snotlout with little patience. _"Pungent. It means..."_

"Gone," Astrid grumbled. It was her own failure to track Hiccup that augmented an already turbulent ire with him. "_But—_," she held up a finger, "he was doing something weird in the forge last night."

Ruffnut eyebrows rose.

"You've taken to following him around at _night_?"

Even _she_ hadn't reached that level yet.

...Should she be worried?

Astrid waved off the disbelieving glare.

"No, I just happened to...I mean it was _dark_. But he was there...and then he disappeared! No—_ugh_—I can't explain it. But he _is_ doing something weird. Probably wrong too. I'm going to find out what."

"I'm sure you will," Ruffnut droned with a hint of patronization.

Astrid pursed her lips.

"I'm not crazy—"

"Oh, hey babe!" Snotlout called having just noticed Astrid's arrival. He stepped away from Fishlegs while the boy was in mid-lecture and plopped down on Astrid's other side. He smoothly reached an arm around her shoulder. "Are you ready for the preliminary?"

Astrid's strike to the underside of Snotlout's belly was completely reflexive. He coughed and rethought his embrace while Astrid took a breath to pull a little more composure into her being.

"Of course. I'm going to win it."

She had the highest approval vote next to Hiccup. It would be the pair of them commentating in the final exercise.

"What if Hiccup pulls a fancy trick out on you?" Ruffnut couldn't help but heckle. Everyone secretly enjoyed seeing Hiccup dominate the Ring simply for its 'awe factor'—even the hardcore traditionalists. The unnaturalness of it all presented an unsavory appeal...like seeing a one-headed Zippleback.

"The chief will be watching," Astrid said with self-assurance. "He wouldn't dare cheat in front of _him_. I'm not going to lose."

Ruffnut jerked out of her slouch. "The chief?"

_If the chief was here..._

"The ships came in about an hour ago," Astrid stated. Seeing her attention directed elsewhere, Snotlout made another attempt to slink up close to her. He got a bloody lip for his trouble.

"Will you knock it off?" Astrid snarled.

Ruffnut abruptly stood, drawing all attention to her.

"Your dad was on it," Astrid assured her. "Relax—"

Ruffnut was already running towards her home.

"Hey—wait for me!" Tuffnut shouted after her but she only added a burst of speed toward her destination.

Ruffnut dodged the many bodies of a newly filled village, rounded two houses, a barn, and sprinted up the hill to her home. She saw him just outside the barrier of their pasture. His packed belongings dropped by his feet, one hand stroking his beard while he observed their one cow for any grievances in his absence.

"DAD!"

The bear of a man turned at her call—ten years their mother's senior with a full, wild grey beard that could rival the chief's in volume. A wide smile moved the wiry hair above his lip.

"Pigeon!"

Ruffnut hugged her father with a flying tackle. His great bear-like arms encircled her; they always made her feel safe and warm, no matter how old she got.

"How was it?" she asked, pulling away.

"Miserable," he griped. "Hardly any meat."

"I want to hear about it!"

For the first time in days Hiccup did not occupy Ruffnut's mind. There was still one man in her life that would always come first.

Hiccup could wait.

**######## ########**

* * *

The air was charged that afternoon in a way it hadn't been in two seasons; a cooling summer reheated by the high energy of the crowd. Stoick the Vast stood over the bars of the Kill Ring, observing the event with an absolute look of pride on his face many hadn't seen before. His war council and the village Gothi surrounded him in a semi circle—her father included.

"Come on, come on, come on..." Snotlout chanted under his breath as the two contestants ran around the Ring.

Well, Astrid was doing most of the running. Hiccup looked lackadaisical, almost bored, like he couldn't care less about winning. It was this apathy of the impertinent sort that made Ruffnut all kinds of giggly inside. A bit embarrassing really.

"Who _are_ you cheering for?" Tuffnut asked Snotlout.

"Well..." Snotlout was torn between his unlikely hero of a cousin and the girl he had a crush on for the last two years.

Fishlegs saw this as an invitation to break down the implications behind either victory.

"If Astrid wins it will show hard work and dedication to the Viking way is best. It'll enforce our teachings. But if Hiccup wins—"

"It'll just be all sorts of awesome," Ruffnut supplied.

"I'm voting for Hiccup," Tuffnut decided. "He does things the fun way."

"He doesn't even _hit_ anything!" Snotlout argued, though he still appeared uncertain for who he should root for.

"I'll support whoever wins," Fishlegs decided.

"Yeah," Snotlout agreed, thankful for a solution. "Whoever wins I'll like."

And just as he said it the Gronkle keeled over by Hiccup's side.

"YES!" Ruffnut shrieked in a voice pitched higher than she thought herself capable of. Tuffnut cried out and rubbed his ear but Ruffnut was already sprinting towards the gate entrance.

"Where are you going? Gothi still has to pick—!" Fishlegs began but the other trainees had decided to follow her.

"Better seat!" Snotlout hollered over his shoulder.

Fishlegs sighed and followed suit.

They packed in at the closed gate in time to see Gobber pointing a finger down at Hiccup with an incredulous expression. The screaming crowd told them exactly who had been picked as the victor.

"Let us in—let us in!" Ruffnut demanded to any one of the boys.

"On three—" Fishlegs began, gripping the base of the iron grid.

"THREE!" Ruffnut roared.

Fishlegs and Snotlout reacted immediately; both brawny boys threw the gate up with duel grunts. Tuffnut flung his arms in the air to give the appearance of helping.

Ruffnut dashed forward, the boys following close behind.

"You did it, Hiccup!" Gobber cheered. He pulled the boy to him in a one-armed hug. "Yeh get tae kill the dragon!"

"Yeah! Hiccup!" Ruffnut cheered. Hundreds of other voices drowned hers out.

Fishlegs barreled past her and lifted Hiccup onto his shoulder. Hiccup had a forced smile on his face

"Headslam!" Tuffnut demanded in her ear. Ruffnut was so energized that she didn't fight it; she and her brother collided helmets like they did when they were children.

"Yeah cous'!" Snotlout threw up a flat-faced palm. Hiccup tapped it weakly with his own.

"Ha, ha...yeah," Hiccup cheered falsely. "I'm so...excited. Really. Hey, Fish, can you put me down?"

"No way!" Tuffnut cut in. "Carry him all the way to the Mead Hall!"

Vikings started to swarm in through the opened gate. Some went to the waking Gronkle but most began to press against their small group.

"Down Fish." Hiccup demanded in a sharper tone. Startled, Fishlegs allowed Hiccup to slide from his shoulder only for a dozen patting hands to descend on the new champion.

"There's my boy!" Stoick the Vast's mighty burr could have carried all the way to the Cliffs of Eternity with its volume. Ruffnut could spot the top of Stoick's head bobbing closer and closer from the back of the crowd—and she was hardly the tallest one of their group.

"Oh gods, I can't do this," Hiccup moaned. Ruffnut pushed and shoved and squeezed herself in between many bodies until she pressed against Hiccup's back. A very uncomfortable experience on the whole.

"Yes you can," she whispered to the shell of his ear. She felt him shudder against her hip and she had to clamp down on the mad urge to kiss his neck simply because_ it was the closest thing to her lips._ She was sure it was just a proximity reaction.

It passed quickly.

"Ruff," he croaked. He twisted his head to meet her eyes; there was something dark in his gaze—either fear or anxiety—and she didn't know if it was because of _her_ or because of his discomfort with the situation. She wouldn't mind either.

Bodies were being pushed apart—Stoick was covering fast ground.

"Tell them you're exhausted," she rushed. "Tell them you want to collect your strength for tomorrow—!"

Then Hiccup was gone. Ruffnut found herself herded out of the way by the force at which Stoick moved the Vikings on either side of her. She stumbled off foot, finally catching her balance and breath outside of the epicenter.

She would have been more affronted with the rough treatment had she not heard Hiccup's loud proclamations:

"I—I'm _really_ tired dad—no, no, I know you want to celebrate. How about you celebrate for me. I just want to be really, ah, _focused_ for tomorrow, you know?"

Ruffnut smiled widely. It would work. He _owed_ her now. And while he was "resting for tomorrow" away from the village, she would collect.

**######## ########**

* * *

Unfortunately for Ruffnut, her excuse worked a little _too_ well. She had been really looking forward to getting Hiccup alone again—possibly take advantage of him in his emotionally unstable state. She wanted to see if she could get away with kissing him one more time. She hadn't gotten a very readable reaction the first time—mostly stuttering and petrifaction.

Hiccup wasn't at his home and he wasn't in the forge. He wasn't hiding under the docks and he wasn't in any of the best, climbable trees. He wasn't with his father and he wasn't with Gobber.

"Where is Hiccup?" quickly became Ruffnut's quote of the day. She asked anyone who made eye contact with her and would receive a shrug or a drunkenly raised tankard. Some men would waggle their eyebrows and ask why she wanted to know. Some women would roll their eyes and turn away.

There was one person Ruffnut hadn't gotten around to asking—the only other person strangely absent from the village.

So Ruffnut switched tactics and began asking, "Hey, have you seen Astrid?"

To which Fishlegs said, "She ran after Hiccup earlier..."

Ruffnut promptly redirected her efforts to finding Astrid. She knew all of Astrid's training spots, she knew every one of Astrid's secret thinking spots, but the girl was as gone as Hiccup.

A ball of worry had begun to form in her stomach as the sun set. Ruffnut had seen Astrid's face when Hiccup won and _never_ had Astrid lost composure like that. It was funny in the beginning; Ruffnut thought Astrid needed to be taken down a peg or two because she had been on such a success streak. Now it concerned her. She had never appreciated the level head behind the axe skill until now.

For the first time Ruffnut saw Astrid as someone dangerous.

"Do you think...do you think she killed him?" Ruffnut asked her brother in a rare moment of candor. Night had come and still no Hiccup.

No Astrid either.

"Will you give it a rest?" Tuffnut grunted. He was crunching up stinkbugs in a mortar.

"She was _pissed_, Tuff. I mean, really, really mad. She could actually kill him. She's capable of it."

Anyone could _kill_ Hiccup, but Astrid might have had the easiest time of it. Morally speaking.

Tuffnut shook his head and twisted the pestle so that the beetles beneath gave a nice crunch.

"Astrid's crazy but she's not _that_ crazy."

"She _is_ that crazy," Ruffnut insisted. "We all saw her lose it."

Tuffnut sighed and leaned away from his work. He wasn't going to be rid of his sister any time soon.

"She just doesn't like being second," he said. "Remember when she wouldn't talk to you for getting your lady curse before her?"

"Oh—_gods_!" Ruffnut howled. She snatched a drying beet from the pile harvested that morning and chucked it at his head. "Shut_ up!_"

There were few topics she and her brother weren't comfortable harassing the other about. Her cycle was, and always would be, off limits.

His point was moot too. Technically, Astrid never went _back_ to talking to her. Not openly.

"Ow!" Tuffnut cried, cradling his head. "What the hel?"

"You are such a troll!"

"_Are_ you lady-cursing?"

She hurled another beet at him and stormed out of the house. The smell from the stinkbugs was getting to her anyway. She felt nauseous.

Fresh air did little to calm her stomach like she hoped it would, but Ruffnut continued to blame her disgust with her brother on this unsettling feeling. It couldn't be concern over Hiccup—she thought he was nice to look at and had great entertainment value but no boy should ever make her feel like this. He was just a project. A goal. No matter that she could behave as herself and he would tolerate it, no matter that he would probably be happiest with her because she wouldn't force him to conform to their society's expectations. She didn't care. If it didn't pan out she'd be fine. Totally fine.

Truly, Ruffnut didn't know why she felt like this—some sick mix of possessiveness and jealousy. She didn't know how much of her desire for Hiccup was political and how much was sincere feelings, but she suspected the latter had started to grow. An actual crush may have been developing somewhere amidst her twisted fantasies. One she never saw it coming.

That was bad. She needed to stay focused if she planned to pull off anything.

A crunch of gravel drew Ruffnut's attention from the ground. She squinted at the moving shadow several paces down the hill from her.

"Hey," she barked. "Who is that?"

The lurker froze at her voice. Then, realizing they were caught, took a few steps into the light of a nearby brazier.

Ruffnut felt her stomach pitch as Astrid's features highlighted and she didn't know if it was relief or horror. There was something missing from the other girl—an anger that had been so present over the last week, an aggression that had powered her movements around the village.

_Holy heinous Hel...she may have **actually** killed him!_

"Hi Ruff—"

"What did you do to him?"

Astrid blinked, bewildered. "Who?"

Ruffnut wouldn't be fooled. Astrid's hair was a mess, half out of her braid, and the present lighting revealed a flush to her cheeks.

"Hiccup," Ruffnut clipped.

Instead of the scowl or swell of anger that usually followed Hiccup's name, Astrid's face colored further. She fidgeted.

"I...I don't know."

She was lying. It was the single talent Ruffnut had over Astrid because Astrid _never_ lied—she was a brutally honest girl. And she was behaving so _oddly_. Her eyes were shifty and her face unsure. Very wrong footed.

Something tickled in Ruffnut's mind. A warning about this behavior, something ancestral passed down from women since the dawn of time.

Something had happened...something that may not have involved violence at all.

"Where were you...?" Ruffnut asked again, this time with more caution because she was no longer sure if she wanted to hear the answer.

Astrid tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and closed her eyes.

"I was just out for walk, that's all."

"All day?"

"I needed to clear my head, okay?"

"You're a mess."

"I know...I..." Astrid began to brush back her hair with her fingers. Her eyes trailed the grounds, seeking focus in something other than Ruffnut's accusatory stare. She didn't get angry at Ruffnut's unsavory comment to her appearance; she became self-conscious. So many things were _wrong_.

"You were with him, weren't you?" Ruffnut asked quietly. She knew the answer before she asked it.

Astrid looked up in shock. Her face told Ruffnut more than the twin was prepared for—guilt. And with the messy hair and flushed face it painted the picture of a girl who had done one thing.

"Were you...were—" Ruffnut's throat became very tight. She couldn't get the words out.

_Hiccup was a champion now. Naturally Astrid would look his way at some point._

"No, it's not like that!"

Astrid would only take stubbornness so far. She was smart enough to see the benefits in Hiccup, see the advantage in claiming ownership over the chief's son.

Ruffnut found it difficult to form the exact words she wanted to say. There were too many trying to get out at the same time.

"You knew I..." She took a breath—but it was _so hard_. "You knew that I..."

But _had_ Astrid known? The other girl looked sincerely apologetic but Ruffnut didn't know _why_. What could she possibly feel sorry for? Was it something that read in her face? Were her lips quivering as much as they felt like they were?

Ruffnut wasn't going to cry—not over him. Not for a stupid, hopeless plan that never would have panned out anyway.

"Ruffnut, it wasn't like that..." The softness and pity in Astrid's voice burned her. It spoke of falsehood and a _need to comfort._

_Something had happened._

She couldn't breath. A weight pressed upon Ruffnut's chest, a strange and terrible weight that came from the inside.

_Astrid would eventually look at Hiccup—of course she would—and once that happened __**she**__ would never stand a chance._

Astrid took a step forward and it spurred Ruffnut into backpedalling. She didn't want to hear a denial or a confession because she couldn't take any more chances.

"Ruffnut...Ruff wait—!"

Ruffnut gasped, hating the sudden release of emotions in her chest, and charged back to her home. Her vision blurred and her body felt heavy and exhausted.

It wasn't fair—_Astrid couldn't like Hiccup—she couldn't—!_ He was the _one_ guy Ruffnut could feel confident about and...and now...

"People don't marry squirrels," she whispered. She needed to remember that. It was important. "People don't marry...squirrels..."

It did nothing to warm the coldness clawing at her pride. Her voice cracked and the terrible weight moved up to the back of her throat as if to wait for the next time she opened her mouth. It would release from her and all self-control would be gone.

Ruffnut had never hoped like she hoped these last few days. She had never fantasized about anything real and tangible and possible before and _this was why._

She could never measure up to anything outside of her imagination.

**######## ########**

* * *

The sun rained warmth on Berk the next day and it helped Ruffnut's mood immensely. A good night's sleep and an early morning beat down on her brother had lifted her spirits and returned her optimism.

The night before was a moment of weakness—she was tired from a long day of searching and let her disappointment over Hiccup get the better of her. It _did _serve to remind Ruffnut to keep a level head in this game of hers. She wasn't a particularly shrewd person, nor was she outwardly clever, but she did have ambition when push came to shove...so long as the results inspired her to put forth effort.

She had already made plans to breech the subject of marriage to her father after the Final Exam. It wouldn't hurt to plant the seed in _his_ head too.

Ruffnut's cheer faltered when she saw Hiccup in the doorway to the arena. He wasn't alone.

She leaned against the iron barrier and stuck her head through the bars for a better look.

What was Astrid doing down there with Hiccup? The girl hated him. She _had_ to hate him. She _needed _to hate him.

_Calm down you nitwit._

But the significance of the situation was not lost on her. Here Ruffnut was, hanging onto the spectator cage to get the best possible view for this show, and Hiccup's self-proclaimed rival was down there next to the boy himself.

Astrid appeared concerned.

Why? Why did Astrid express the very expression Ruffnut wished she had the guts to? Worse yet, Hiccup responded to it. He spoke to Astrid in earnest; he looked her in the eye. He wasn't nervous around her anymore. Ruffnut didn't know if that was a good sign or not. The part of her that continued to hope the worst of her suspicions weren't true ebbed.

"Are you okay?" Tuffnut asked.

"Hmmm?"

_Oh good. Gobber separated them..._

"The fight hasn't started yet—you don't need to freak out."

Ruffnut turned to glare at her twin. Tuffnut sent a pointed look to the rigid grip she had on the bars.

"I'm _not_ freaking out," Ruffnut insisted. "I'm getting excited—"

"The _dagger?_" Snotlout exclaimed and Ruffnut's attention snapped back to the arena.

Snotlout wasn't the only one shocked. The crowd rippled with muted disbelief as Hiccup stood in the middle of the Ring, shield on arm and tiny dagger in hand.

"I'm sure he knows what he's doing," Fishlegs said with a tone to suggest he believed nothing of the sort.

"He _never_ knows what he's doing," Ruffnut muttered. _She_ knew that. No one else knew that.

So Ha.

"You don't know that," Tuffnut said under his breath.

Ruffnut gave a dry laugh. "I _do_ know that, actually."

"No you don't."

"No, actually, I do."

"No you—"

_"Holy sh—!"_

Snotlout's bellowed swear drowned in the roar of fire. Everyone leapt from the bars as a fully flamed Nightmare slithered along their wall. Fire licked at Ruffnut's face and arms through the gaps of the crisscrossed bars.

It was gone in the next moment, the Nightmare having wormed its way back to the ground.

"Thor's thunder-thighs!" Fishlegs gasped.

The all rushed to the face of the cage as quickly as they left it. The iron had heated and seared their flesh but it stopped no one from leaning in as far as they could.

The Nightmare had extinguished its flames, finished with its little show, and now faced off Hiccup. Their size difference was indescribable.

"What is he doing?" Tuffnut asked with a squint to his eyes. Any Viking within earshot simultaneously shrugged.

The dragon crawled forward and Hiccup—Hiccup dropped his dagger. And then he dropped his shield.

"What is he_ doing?_" Snotlout whispered, repeating Tuffnut with far more fervor.

All thoughts of what may or may not have happened between Hiccup and Astrid had long since fled Ruffnut's mind. Her heart hammered against the base of her throat.

_There was crazy and there was stupid._

Hiccup held his hands before him. The Nightmare curled a lip revealing bottom fangs bigger than Hiccup's arms.

Ruffnut bit her lip as Hiccup took his helmet from his head...and threw it on the ground.

"I'm not one of them."

_This was stupid._

A collective gasp rang throughout the amphitheater.

_"What's he thinkin'?"_

_"What is he doin'?"_

_"Daft—the boy's gone mad!"_

"Uh...seriously. What is he doing?" Snotlout asked. He kept throwing looks to Fishlegs, for once seeking an answer.

"He's gonna do something cool...just...just wait for it." Fishlegs swallowed. He didn't believe his own words. No one did. Hiccup had just crossed a line even Ruffnut wouldn't think to.

"Stop the fight."

Ruffnut spared a glance towards Stoick, who bore a dangerous expression of alarm.

"No!" Hiccup barked. "I need you all to see this." He spoke not only to his father but also to every member of the tribe. "They're not what we think they are. We don't have to kill them..."

Ruffnut felt the captured air in her lungs release. His words were so powerful...

_'Wrong,' _the Viking-bred part of her mind reminded her. _'They were __**wrong**__.'_ But still powerful. Her doubt of earlier had evaporated. Hiccup had confidence in him this time, not uncertainty. It was mesmerizing to Ruffnut—his naked hands reaching towards the snout of a Monstrous Nightmare, an impossible mix of strength and compassion in his stance...

Hiccup's actions were madness embodied.

Her faith had returned—_he was worth fighting for_—and her heart started to lift when Stoick the Vast bellowed so fearsomely that every member of their tribe gasped in unison.

"I SAID STOP THE FIGHT!"

His hammer struck the iron bars with the might of Thor himself, disfiguring the cage.

The Nightmare reacted. Gargantuan jaws snapped at Hiccup's outstretched hand.

"Oh gods!" Ruffnut gasped into her palms when the fire followed next. Her brother was swearing in her ear, doing nothing to calm her down. People were screaming and cursing—some in excitement, others in horror.

"Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no—" Fishlegs muttered over and over again. It further agitated her.

Ruffnut felt a grip against her shoulder. Her brother was comforting her in the only way he knew how, compelled to do so from their instinctive birth connection.

"It'll be fine," he said. But his fingers were white and his jaw clenched.

Ruffnut couldn't respond to him. She couldn't do anything; her legs wouldn't move, her lungs wouldn't move. She was trapped in her own body, forced to watch as Astrid tried to save the boy _she_ intended to marry. The girl's attempts to redirect the Nightmare's aggression towards someone who could better handle it were brief. Stoick intervened and all too soon Hiccup was trapped again. It was happening fast—too fast. Ruffnut hadn't enough time to register how things had fallen out of control so quickly. Her sorrow of the previous night seemed a lifetime ago, her suspicion of Astrid meaningless—

A high-pitched scream heightened the chaos just before one side of the overhanging barrier exploded.

"What was _that?_" someone wailed particularly close to her ear. Bodies were pressed around them so tightly Ruffnut couldn't have turned to see whom had she cared to.

Smoke filled the Ring. The Nightmare and Hiccup disappeared. Then bat like wings broke through the thick haze in alternating pulses—red and black—pushing dust and smoke away to reveal a sleek black dragon tearing into the back of the Nightmare.

"Night Fury!" Gobber the Belch yelped from the other side of the mob. The word rippled through the crowd.

"No way!" Snotlout crowed. He leapt up on the bars for a better look. Ruffnut had half a mind to do the same just to get the pressure from behind off of her but she still hadn't the strength or wit to do more than stare.

Beside her, Fishlegs shook. He whispered under his breath in an unintelligible rush. "It's a Night-night Fury—_Night Fury!_—plus seventeen speed, fire power, eleven—defenses—fear factor—_agility_—"

"It's protecting him," Ruffnut whispered, numb. The Fury was blocking every attempt the Nightmare made to get to Hiccup.

"This is unreal...un-friggin-real," her brother repeated at her right. They were all struck dumb, much like the rest of the crowd at first; no one could move except to watch a battle between a Night Fury and a Nightmare.

Suddenly it was over, the Fury won, the Nightmare slunk to the side and Vikings piled into the arena.

Hiccup leapt to the Fury's side almost immediately. He pushed at the dragon's face, desperate with frantic whispers that no one had to guess at. He wanted the dragon to save itself, but the dragon would not leave Hiccup's side.

"Odin's ghost...that thing is loyal to him," Snotlout breathed.

Stoick the Vast released a howl usually reserved for a battlefield and charged the dragon—a fearsome sight for anyone to receive.

Hiccup could be heard from their distance.

_"No—dad—no! He won't hurt you!" _The Fury met the challenge, finally leaving Hiccup's side. _"Toothless stop—!"_

The powerful body and strong tail knocked oncoming Vikings away like gnats. It had one target. The chief was tackled, they tumbled, and the Fury came out on top. The fatal light of an oncoming fire pulsed in the back of the dragon's jaws and Ruffnut knew she was about to witness the death of their leader.

_"NOOO!"_

The Fury swallowed the flame at Hiccup's cry. Their chief was spared.

"It listened—" Fishlegs breathed. "It _obeyed_ him..."

The Vikings acted.

"Oh—" Ruffnut held her hands over her mouth as the dragon was punched and thrown to the ground. Its moan could be heard from where she stood. She couldn't believe she felt sympathy for a dragon, but it had protected Hiccup. Now it suffered for it.

_"No, no—no, please—just don't hurt him!" _Hiccup continued to call helplessly to uncaring ears. Astrid was back in the ring, holding Hiccup in a way Ruffnut would kill for, but this wasn't the time to think like that. She couldn't. Hiccup looked heartbroken as he reached for the Night Fury. Astrid bit her lip; the girl turned her restraint into an embrace and she whispered something to Hiccup. Hiccup shook his head—he didn't want to hear it. He just wanted to get to the Night Fury who was being dragged away under the strength of several Vikings.

The chief stepped forward with an unforgiving look on his face. Ruffnut had never seen him so furious—not even in the middle of a rage when he was all bellows and hard swings.

It was a deadly calm that Stoick the Vast subjected his son to and Ruffnut felt terrified for Hiccup.

A hand gripped her upper arm.

"Com'on—dad wants us home," Tuffnut bid.

She shrugged out of his hold. "No, wait—"

"Ruff, we need to go."

"There's nothing we can do," Snotlout added. He was oddly solemn.

Ruffnut stepped away from the bars. Fishlegs moved behind her to block her view of the arena. Snotlout took up her left side while Tuffnut nudged her back from the right. The boys guided her away.

They shouldn't have to coddle her like this. She didn't know why she felt so out of control of her body. Probably because she wished this to be a dream. What would be the point in marrying Hiccup without his birthright?

Ruffnut glanced back at Fishlegs with a failed smile.

"What are the chances that he tricks his way out of this one?"

Fishlegs stared ahead.

"Not good."

**######## ########**

* * *

Part three. One more to go!

Thanks for the reviews you guys! It's great that you're all enjoying some Ruffnut POV stuffs.

On a **side note**, Hitchups was a top-five featured fanfic for the httyd-fanarts writers month on DA. Not bad for the unconventional :D.

**Also**, that same group had a Halloween-fic contest and voting is going on now! The poll is open until Halloween so in the spirit of the holiday hop on over there, read and vote! Mine is **The Tale of the Dragon's Wrath** which I may put up on ffnet at a later date. http : / / httyd-fanarts. deviantart. com / journal/ poll/ 2363097/


	4. Moe

**Moe**

The Thorston twins stood side by side, both slouched, both watching in silence as their father moved back and forth, packing and unpacking. He seemed unable to decide between two different spears. One had a longer blade, the other a better grip.

He chose the long-blade.

Tuffnut the Elder was one of Stoick's greatest warriors—he attended every hunt and his participation was never in question. Ruffnut hated it. She hated that uneasy pit in her stomach that said _this_ was the one her father wouldn't come home from.

"You just got back," Ruffnut said helplessly. That was supposed to be the last hunt of the season. Her father had promised her. The _chief_ had promised the village.

Her father sighed and shouldered his wicker sack.

"I know, pigeon. But this time there'll be no campin', I promise. In 'n' out. Real quick. This time we have a plan."

Ah, yes. _The Plan_—and not one that involved squirrel hunting. Everyone whispered about this Plan and yet no one knew what it was. Just that, by an unspoken and unanimous acknowledgement, very recent events played into its initiation.

On some fundamental level Ruffnut knew that Hiccup was responsible for this and it made her mad. She didn't care that he had tricked the village—she had already suspected nothing he did in the ring was traditionally heroic long before he admitted it. She didn't care that he coaxed a Night Fury into Berk—she actually found that pretty cool.

She cared that he just endangered her father's life.

"Whelp..." Tuffnut the Elder cleared his throat. He was dreadful at goodbyes. Always had been. "Ship's are about to set sail soon enough—"

"Oh!" Tuffnut yelped. "Wait! Hold up!"

He ran to the other side of the room, stumbled over Ruffnut's outstretched foot, and fell to his knees before a small chest. He emerged after some desperate rummaging and thudded back with his hands cupped out before him.

"Bring these! Tell me how they work."

Their father stared at the four lumpy, wet balls oozing on Tuffnut's palm.

"What the..."

"They're his smelly balls," Ruffnut inflected. Really, Hiccup was the inventor of their age—Tuffnut should just stick to his mediocre weaponry and his admittedly fair grappling.

"_Stink_ balls," Tuffnut corrected with a mean look sent her way. "And they antagonize dragons, as you've pointed out before."

"If you're referring to how they always _attack_ you—"

"They're a great distraction!"

Tuffnut waved his arm in her direction and one of the balls slipped between his fingers. It hit the ground with a disgusting _'squelch_' and the goop of pounded insect released a gut-churning odor.

Ruffnut swallowed back the reflexive bile. "Ugh! You...you...!"

She couldn't even think of a good name. Gods, these smelled! Now _she_ smelled!

Her father began laughing, breathing in fouled air without so much as a grimace. It must be a guy thing.

"Well, with any luck the stench will clear us a path straight tae their nest!"

The mirth in the man's face faded and the Thorston patriarch placed a heavy hand on Ruffnut's shoulder.

"Watch after your brother," he said, his voice soft and heavy.

_"Hey!"_

"I will," Ruffnut promised. Tuffnut the Elder smiled, patted her cheek, and straightened.

"Behave," he ordered. He had gone back to his deep, gruff voice. "Both of yeh. I'll be back."

He nodded once to Tuffnut, adjusted his helmet, and walked out the door.

For a moment neither twin spoke. They took in the fading aura of their father, burned the image of his retreating figure into their minds, and prayed to Odin that it would not be their last memory of him.

"You're not watching after me," Tuffnut told her when the silence became too much.

"Someone has to."

"Someone has to watch after _you_."

"Everyone already watches me. No one cares about you."

"It's 'cus you're uglier. They laugh at you."

Another stretch of silence passed. Tuffnut stepped toward the door.

"Ready to find the others?"

Their father had long disappeared into the muddle of Vikings boarding the ships. Ruffnut wouldn't have to worry about seeing him again. It was bad luck to say two farewells.

Ruffnut gathered her own gruff voice, "Yeah."

**######## ########**

* * *

They found Snotlout and Fishlegs on the steps of the Mead hall. It was their group's go-to hangout when no one was around to yell at them for being underfoot.

Ruffnut tried not to think about where Astrid might be, but the image of her holding Hiccup back—looking so pained _for_ Hiccup—returned that annoying stomach sickness again. It wasn't like that faint, burning sickness she felt when Astrid bested her in spars; it was a sickness that chilled. It was worse.

"Hey," Snotlout said in a miserable greeting.

"Hey," the twins repeated in unison. No one quite knew what to say.

Tuffnut laid himself vertical across several steps. Ruffnut chose to stand.

Her brother laid a forearm over his eyes and muttered, "Who'd have thought..."

The two boys to his left hummed in agreement.

"Do you think it was the one he shot?" Fishlegs asked. "The Night Fury, I mean. The one in the Ring—"

"We know which one you mean," Snotlout drawled. But he shared the same contemplative look the rest bore.

"Maybe it was," Ruffnut conceded, trying to recall Hiccup's ridiculous claims of downing a Night Fury. "Maybe he was telling the truth."

She looked up the stone staircase and counted thirteen steps to the exact spot where she kissed Hiccup. She felt so confident then; she knew of his false confidence and his implied trickery and she felt special. Never would she have guessed that he had a loyal Night Fury watching over him. Never would she have considered _that_ as his greatest secret. The reason why he was so nervous, why he was so introverted and skittish amidst all the praise.

She had seen the guilt. She had guessed wrong.

_Had Astrid known?_

The questioned fizzled in her mind quite quickly. Yes, she did. That would explain how she could remain so focused on Hiccup when the two most dangerous dragons in their region were in the same enclosed space as her. Astrid had known Hiccup's big secret, even after she scorned him worse than usual for an entire two weeks beforehand. She had his confidence—just like that. It felt so sudden. So bizarre. So _unnatural._

"Hey guys!"

The sound of Astrid Hofferson's voice so near, breaking into her thoughts, caused Ruffnut to visibly gasp. She turned to see the girl in mind running up Huge Hill towards them.

Ruffnut didn't know what to feel anymore. Astrid had clearly known about the Night Fury and yet she couldn't muster the jealousy she thought should be appropriate. Ruffnut also didn't feel particularly possessive about Hiccup. She felt numbed. Disappointed. Disappointed in Hiccup for trusting Astrid over her, disappointed in Astrid for not holding true to her nature, disappointed in their chief, disappointed in _herself..._

"Our parents are in trouble," Astrid announced as she skidded to a halt in front of them. She was more breathless from desperation than from the run. "Hiccup has a plan to rescue them."

A beat passed and no one said anything. Ruffnut would do it; she knew that, whatever it was, she would do it for Hiccup and for her father and for the village.

"Hel yeah!" Tuffnut crowed pumping a fist in the air. He pushed off from the steps.

Snotlout leapt up as well. "We're going to save the adults? Now this is going to be _good!_"

Fishlegs pushed himself up with an audible exhale.

"We're going to die," he stated. The other two boys rolled their eyes. Cautiously, Fishlegs added, "But...if it's with Hiccup's plan we might have fun doing it."

Tuffnut and Snotlout stared at him. The girls shared a look in their silence just before the boys started laughing, slapping Fishlegs on the back with heavy fists. Fishlegs gave a shaky smile.

Astrid grinned at them, pleased with their cooperation.

"Come on, he's in the Kill Ring—"

The three boys took that as enough information and immediately began running towards the disaster area.

Astrid looked back at Ruffnut, who had yet to stand from the steps. "Are you coming?"

It was a little awkward between them; this was the first moment they stood face to face since Ruffnut lost her temper the night before.

"Yeah," Ruffnut sighed. Hiccup needed them. She wasn't quite ready to throw in the towel yet, even when her heart wasn't in it.

Astrid wrinkled her nose. "What is that smell?"

"Shut up."

**######## #######**

* * *

They arrived in the Kill Ring to see Hiccup standing before the lever to the Nightmare's cage, one hand on his chin in thought.

Ruffnut had to admire the size difference between Hiccup and his surroundings. He really didn't look like much. But it was this boy who had inadvertently set their parents on a death trip, who caused the greatest commotion in the Kill Ring since Madguts the Murderous challenged a young Stoick the Vast to hólmganga. This singular, short, destructive boy who had the respect of a Night fury.

They came to a stop in the middle of the Ring.

Fishlegs stepped forward with arms akimbo, exuding a new confidence after his recent approval with the other males of their group.

"If you're planning on getting eaten, I'd definitely go with the Gronkle."

Hiccup whirled. Ruffnut could tell by the look on his face that he had _not_ anticipated Astrid bringing all of the trainees. Or even Astrid herself.

Tuffnut knocked Ruffnut on the shoulder as he broke formation and strode right up to Hiccup's face.

"You were wise to seek help from the world's most deadly weapon," he showcased dramatically.

Hiccup stared. "Ah—"

_Oh Frigga. He was making adorable faces again._

"It's me," Tuffnut added for his benefit. A large hand smushed Tuffnut's nose as Snotlout shoved him backward.

"I _love_ this plan!"

_Fool!_

Ruffnut stomped forward—they didn't even know what the plan _was!_

Hiccup clearly thought Snotlout's declaration was just as nonsensical.

"I didn't—"

Ruffnut shouldered Snotlout out of the way, catching the side of his face with her helmet horn.

"You're crazy—I like that."

_But you already knew that, didn't you?_

Ruffnut had been this close to Hiccup before...but never smelling like skunk cabbage. Hiccup caught one whiff if it and cringed. Ruffnut had less than a blink to curse her brother's name into oblivion before she felt a tug on her braid. She followed it, knowing there was no point in ensnaring Hiccup when she couldn't pull off allure.

Instead, Ruffnut chose to focus on how big Hiccup's eyes looked in his bewilderment.

She liked that look of bewilderment. It looked submissive.

"So...what _is_ the plan?" Astrid asked.

Hiccup looked at her, he looked at all of them and, seeing that they would seriously follow him into battle, he smiled.

"The plan is to follow them to the nest," he stated, still wearing his big grin.

"Uh..." Snotlout had his 'are you serious' face on. "They took all the ships."

Miraculously, Hiccup had one of those faces too. It must be heritable.

"I wasn't referring to sailing," he said patiently. He returned to the massive cage lever. "'Legs, help me with this."

"You want to release the Nightmare?" Snotlout yelped.

Hiccup grinned and Ruffnut felt all her lingering anger with him melt away. It was his crazy grin.

"I want to release _all_ the dragons."

**######## ########**

* * *

"Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods—"

"I don't think dragons have gods," Tuffnut said to Snotlout, grinning.

Snotlout didn't seem to hear him, too occupied with keeping a brave front in the face of an obvious discomfort around dragons. Ruffnut was sure Snotlout wouldn't mind flying soon enough—he was just a bit more stubborn than most kids their age, an early bloomer in that department, and the transition from touching dragons to riding dragons happened a little fast for him.

"We are flying!" Ruffnut hollered over the wind, more than happy to remind him. _She was flying_. It was amazing.

Hiccup flew with the most ease atop the Nadder. It told Ruffnut that he had flown dragons before. Well, that and his defensive Night Fury had a saddle on back during the Ring incident. But it was here and now that Ruffnut got to witness. Hiccup had a confidence in the air that they all lacked, a poise he couldn't quite master on land. If Hiccup was a walking disaster in their village, he was the Hotshot of the skies. _This_ was where his prowess was. No one thought to look this high.

No one but him.

Ruffnut would have loved to admire this confident, alluring aura Hiccup exuded in the air, but seeing Astrid seated behind him, her arms wrapped around his torso, brought back that annoying sourness.

Now there were two women who had felt the boniest body in the Barbaric Archipelagoes.

"Yeah...haha..." Snotlout still nervousness with being atop the Nightmare, even if it had taken a liking to him rather quickly.

"You're doing fine," Hiccup coaxed. "Just keep your grip on the base of its horn."

Ruffnut was thankful that a Zippleback had horns. She thought grabbing horns was a lot easier than using rope like the Nadder and Gronkle required, not to mention more stable.

"Hiccup...is this right?" Ruffnut asked. Her dragon kept dipping its head up and down so that she and her brother continually seesawed. She felt like she covered more air vertically than horizontally.

"It's fine," Hiccup began only for Tuffnut to cut in.

"Is mine the alpha head? Because I think it's bigger—"

"Will you shut up? They're equal!" Ruffnut flared. Under her breath she added, "_Mine_ is the alpha head."

Fishlegs raised his hand. "Um...I feel like I have no control over mine. His back half swings from side to side..."

Huh. Fishlegs had the opposite problem as her.

"Your dragons should be in control," Hiccup reminded not just Fishlegs, but everyone. "I never rode a Gronkle but I would trust it to know how to fly in its own way. They're each different."

The little details were starting to emerge as they closed in on the Hooligan ships. The sheer awe and vertigo of _flying atop dragons_ was still as strong as ever, simply less mind-consuming.

Fishlegs gasped.

"Is that the nest?"

No one had to wonder what he referred to. A giant wall of cloud had presented itself to them, so large it might have been a landmark. The air had an unnatural feel about it—like a barrier to another world.

"We're at the nest!" Snotlout announced. He smiled widely.

"It's not something to celebrate," Hiccup said darkly. Astrid nodded at his back.

Ruffnut felt a shadow pass over her as they came upon the pillowed darkness.

"Here we go..." she muttered. She felt the need to hold her breath with the first plunge into the mist. It was cold, stingingly so. The clouds were thick, but they could still see one another.

"Listen," she heard Astrid say from somewhere above her.

A primordial roar called to them from the bowels of the nest. Ruffnut felt her dragon-head shudder.

"Let's go," Hiccup commanded. He pressed forward on the Nadder and the dragon responded with sharper weaves between sea stacks.

Ruffnut mimicked him—they all did—and soon her surroundings became a blur of brown and grey. No one spoke, too concentrated on flying. The closer they got, the louder and deeper the roars became. Dread began to crawl up their backs and sent a pounding reminder to the base of their minds that this was reality, not a game.

Their surroundings changed all too suddenly. The mists cleared, the sea stacks thinned, and a mess of ships and Vikings and _something_ became all they could focus on.

"Gods...is that _it?_" Snotlout was the first to utter.

"Yep," Astrid deadpanned.

It was gargantuan, visible even through the haze of clouds. Taller than any tree Ruffnut had climbed and wider than any hill on her island, teeth too big and eyes too small.

Hiccup swooped the Nadder in closer to their cluster of dragons at a sharp, sideways dive. Ruffnut didn't yet know how to do that; his command over the dragon looked effortless.

"Okay, here's the deal," Hiccup said, "I've only encountered this thing once—"

"_We've_," Astrid corrected.

"Yes, we've," Hiccup fixed without paying her much mind. "So I—_we_—don't know much about it. We need to get in there, distract it from our parents long enough for them to escape, and I _need_ to get to Toothless."

The screams of Vikings were tragically audible now. Ruffnut saw the beast streamed a jet of fire that could have rivaled the Summer Current in its strength. It's gullet wobble with the expulsion.

"_Oh—!_" Ruffnut heard Hiccup released a swear she hadn't even heard from Gobber the Belch. She saw Astrid leaning back, just as shocked.

Hiccup pressed forward and, as though responding to an invisible cue, the Nadder tucked its wings in and rocketed at the monster.

"Hiccup!" Fishlegs began, "—what—?"

"Let's follow them!" Snotlout ordered. He was technically ranking as second in this mission so Ruffnut didn't argue.

They pursued Hiccup at a distance to perfectly view the Nadder's flame strike the monster's head. Hiccup and Astrid were out of the danger zone before the beast had recovered from its stun.

In and out, loud and hard—it happened so fast. Only in the aftermath did Ruffnut realize the monster was going to fire at their chief.

Screams met their ears—different from before, full of surprise and disbelief. It was a far more welcomed sound than the earlier cries ones of despair.

Well, that was one way to make an entrance.

"There's dad!" Ruffnut shrieked. Her finger pointed out her father among dozens of others, staring up at them dumbfounded. She felt a thousand times lighter, even in the fire path of the most deranged creature she had ever seen.

Hiccup directed the Nadder back to their ragtag team.

"Ruff, Tuff, watch your backs—_move Fishlegs!_"

Tuffnut was _not_ watching his back. He was too enthralled with the attention they were getting.

"Look at us! We're on a dragon!" he called, releasing one of the horns to wave his arm around in the air. "We're on dragons, all of us!"

Ruffnut felt the thrill of the awareness as well. She laughed—_her father was alive!_—and threw her own hand into the air. If they survived this, they would be _legends_.

"Up! Let's move it!" Hiccup snapped for their attention. Not even Snotlout felt compelled to argue. They followed him to an elevation just above the Death's head. "Fishlegs—break it down."

Fishlegs was too wired to hesitate.

"Okay! Heavily armored skull and tail made for bashing and crushing. Steer clear of both. Small eyes, large nostrils. Relies on hearing and smell."

Damn, even the nerd was all business. He hadn't stuttered once.

Hiccup flicked his tongue over his lips, probably while he processed the information, and immediately began delegating positions.

"Okay. Lout, Legs, hang in its blind spot. Make some noise, keep it confused. Ruff, Tuff, find out if it has a shot limit. Make it mad."

Ruffnut puffed out her chest. "That's my specialty!"

_She would impress him. She would impress the village._

"Since when? Everyone knows I'm more irritating, see?" And to prove his claim right, Tuffnut turned his dragon head so that he hung upside-down.

Ruffnut clamped down on the urge to kick his face in. It was at the perfect level.

"Just do what I told you!" Hiccup snapped, exasperated. Great, now he was disappointed in her too. Stupid Tuffnut. "I'll be back as soon as I can!"

They swung out of range with Hiccup focused on the ships and Astrid throwing them a good-luck salute.

_Don't think about them,_ Ruffnut demanded of herself. Think about **now**.

"Let's do this," she said. She was getting pumped. She was on top of a Zippleback, tasked with antagonizing the largest dragon ever seen. She was making history and doing suicidal, crazy, borderline-stupid things.

Ruffnut bit her lip and grinned.

_Show time._

She had to admire Hiccup's forethought of assigning them the Zippleback; it was a smart match. Two heads with one body, two bodies with one head. Tuffnut and Ruffnut knew exactly which way to swing into the monster's vision. They knew when to call their insults so that one never overlapped the other.

"Troll!"

"Butt-elf!"

"Bride of Grendel!"

Ruffnut could _hear_ the monster intake its flame. A moment later and it fired—and having the streaming jet of flame just miss them by an arm's reach was an entirely new experience compared to seeing it from afar.

Ruffnut felt her skin burn even when nothing touched her. Never had she felt so _alive_.

"One more time!" Tuffnut hooted.

Ruffnut thrust her fist in the air. "Yeah! Come on you warty lardass!"

"Snot guzzling shrimp!"

"Overgrown slug!"

It snarled and fired again. The Zippleback was forced to arch backwards to avoid it. Both twins gripped their respective necks with their thighs and thrust both hands in the air at the peak of momentum.

"Whoo!" Ruffnut screamed into the cold. The air bit the inside of her lungs in a way she didn't know was possible.

They righted again.

"You okay?" Tuffnut hollered from his side.

"Oh yeah!" Ruffnut cackled. "Never been better. How about you Zip?"

The head beneath her glanced up and Ruffnut swore to Odin it smiled.

She grinned. "That's what I'm talking about."

"I don't think it can have many more left," Tuffnut mused in an odd moment of contemplation. "It's just two so far but there's so much fire each time."

"Three," Ruffnut corrected. "The one when we got here, remember?"

"There could have been even more before that," Tuffnut said over her.

"Well, I think we don't have to worry about it anyway," said Ruffnut pointing back at the monster. Apparently it was too distracted to fire at them anymore.

"Woah!" Tuffnut roared. "How did Lout get _up_ there?"

Snotlout was on his hands and knees, bashing the monster in the eye repeatedly with his hammer.

"How did Fish get down _there_?" Ruffnut countered. Fishlegs was on the ground by the monster's feet, scrambling under the weight of his Gronkle.

"Yeah! You the Viking!" Astrid's cheer took their attention back up to the monster's head.

Snotlout looked up, shocked and delighted with Astrid's positive attention. He had the same dopey look Hiccup had when _he_ looked at Astrid. There was something seriously, _seriously_ wrong with those Horrendous Haddocks.

The twins each startled when Snotlout was knocked free of his footing and sighed when he managed to grab a jutting bone from the monster's skull.

"Not the time Astrid," Ruffnut muttered.

_Wait a minute..._

"Where did Hiccup go?" Tuffnut wondered aloud, voicing the very question that came to Ruffnut.

"Hey!" Astrid hollered. She swung the Nadder by them. "Get Snotlout out of there!"

Ruffnut wanted to ask where Hiccup was but knew the heat of battle called for something a little more prudent.

"I'm on it!" Tuffnut announced at a shout.

Ruffnut's competitive mind pulled to attention immediately, a feeling augmented when Tuffnut swept his dragon head into hers.

"Hey!" she snapped. "I'm on it first!"

Ruffnut risked lifting herself from her seat to kick Tuffnut in the stomach.

"I'm ahead of you!"

She was trying to keep one eye on the dangerous face they quickly approached but sometimes her brother annoyed her at the _worst of times._

"Hey let me drive—!"

The Zippleback took complete control. Sometime while Ruffnut pushed her brother's helmet and he tugged at a fisted braid, the dragon had steered them downward so that they sheered over the monster's maw. Snotlout took a dangerous leap from its nose at just the right moment.

Ruffnut and her brother stared at each other in stunned silence. Snotlout clung to the junction of the Zippleback's neck.

"I can't believe that actually worked!" Tuffnut exclaimed.

"Yes! It worked! _Now let's get own!_" Snotlout grunted. His grip slipped against the scales.

"Going down!" Tuffnut announced before his smile faltered. "Right—he didn't give us landing lessons..."

"Zip, you know how to land, right?" Ruffnut asked her head. She felt slightly stupid for the content of the question.

The Zippleback heads each shared a look as thought to say, _"We know how to land __**without**__ Vikings hanging off of us."_

"Why are you calling him Zip?" Tuffnut asked her.

"I'm calling them both Zip!"

"You can't call _both_ heads Zip," Tuffnut sneered. "They'll get confused."

Ruffnut griped the horns tighter as she felt the dragon rear before touch down.

"But it's _one_ dragon—oof!"

The landing was a little rough for her tastes. The crown of the dragon's head struck her sternum, knocking the wind from her. Tuffnut had been thrown from his head altogether.

Snotlout slid onto the ground in a boneless heap.

"Well...I'm not doing _that_ again," he grunted into the gravel.

An explosion bloomed in the sky and all three of them looked up in time to see the Night Fury rocket overhead, Hiccup atop.

"Oh gods—Astrid!"

Snotlout's panicked cry took their attention from Hiccup to the girl spinning through the air.

"What happened?" Ruffnut gasped. _How_ was what she meant to ask, but she hardly had the time to feel horrified let alone ask the right questions. They'd been so preoccupied with landing and getting Snotlout away from the dragon that...how did...? She was just... _Why were all these things happening so quickly?_

Was this battle? This mess of noise and scattered altercation in a singularly focused state of mind?

Fishlegs stumbled up to them; his face and arms were scraped from a rough landing.

"It was going to eat her," he huffed as they watched, frozen, while Astrid's figure cart-wheeled down, "and then Hiccup—_Night Fury_—shot! And she fell—"

A black blur swooped in and snatch Astrid by the foot just above the water, swinging her upright and dropping her safely on the ground. It happened just as fast and suddenly as Astrid's fall.

"OH YES!" Tuffnut cheered, both fists in the air. "Did you see that?"

Cheers flourished from all around them.

"Hahaha..." Snotlout gave a flat laugh. "Yeah—almost killed her. Cool. But yeah, she's safe."

"Hiccup was all the way up in the sky and he managed to make it back down and catch her before she hit," Fishlegs gushed. "That's a Night Fury, for you!"

Ruffnut ignored them, she kept one hand over her eyes and watched as Hiccup continued to climb and climb.

"Hey guys!" Astrid was sprinting towards them. Her hair was a mess and her face as wildly flushed as the night Ruffnut caught her sneaking back into the village.

Something identified in the recesses of her mind and Ruffnut felt cautiously relieved.

"Astrid!" the guys chorused.

"What as it like?" Fishlegs asked breathlessly. Snotlout shoved him back.

_"Are you okay?"_

Astrid came sliding to a stop and immediately took to scanning the skies.

"I'm fine," she said shortly. "Where is he?"

"He was heading up," Ruffnut answered and she too resumed her searching.

Vikings began to gather around them, attracted by the dragon riders and a relatively safe distance from the monster. The chief and Gobber jogged past Ruffnut to stand a few steps before her.

Fishlegs began pointed enthusiastically.

"There! He's reaching an altitude that could be dangerous..." Fishlegs voice dropped to a murmur. "It's harder to breath the higher you climb—we didn't get _half_ that height before. I noticed on the way over—"

"He's coming back," Ruffnut cut in. Hiccup and the Night Fury pulled off a clean reversal and now followed the same path they just flew at a dangerously fast speed.

"What's he doin?" Stoick asked. His face was stark white beneath the red of his beard.

"Watch," Astrid said.

The piercing wail of a Night Fury's fire told of their intention and the tribe witnessed Hiccup and the dragon release an attack in the scoop of their dive. The combined force of speed and power had the effect of Thor's hammer itself.

The beast went down in a scream of rage. The Vikings began cheering like an event at Thorsday Thursday.

_"Cripes—!"_

_"Did yeh see that?"_

_"Knocked the thing clean off its feet!"_

Ruffnut hadn't yet begun to voice her support when the downed creature roused. It was like something out of a nightmare. Ragged, bat-like wings stretched out, shaking crushed rock from the stretched leather.

A thrill of terror ran through her stomach. Ruffnut had thought the monster looked big from the skies, but even then she felt the slightest measure of control with the safety of flight. She had no such comfort on the ground.

How helpless must her father have felt? Spears and axes would be useless against this. No amount of training or study could prepare anyone for survival. Their parents must have looked at this creature and _known_ that they were going to die.

"There he is!" a Viking from the back cried out, and, sure enough, suddenly Hiccup was back, darting between sea stacks.

_"Yes!"_

_"Yeah! Hiccup, go!"_

_"Go boyo!"_

Tuffnut threw himself to his knees and thrust his hands in the air.

"Yeeeahh!"

The beast followed, gargantuan and appalling, plowing through the very sea stacks Hiccup had to weave.

The cheers ceased immediately. It was amazing how quickly dread could overtake the excited heart but Ruffnut felt the plunging sensation when they took to the open skies with jormungand himself in pursuit.

He was so little—_they both were_—what hope did he have?

Hiccup and the dragon flew up and up until the clouds swallowed both and the beast. Ruffnut hadn't the sense to wonder at how big clouds actually were to conceal a behemoth.

"He's dead," Snotlout deadpanned.

"Shut up," Ruffnut snapped. She was shocked to find her voice dual and looked over to see Astrid giving her the same startled look.

Booms and flashes Thor had no claim over took the skies. The clouds lit up from within, the silhouette of the monster contorted into a different position every time. Ruffnut grit her teeth harder with every flicker of light, drew her breath deeper for every rumble of contact. She waited for a body to fall from the sky; she waited for fire and death. It killed her, strained her heart, but she couldn't so much as blink.

_"It's him!"_

_"Up there!"_

Hiccup and the Night Fury had burst forth from the clouds.

Ruffnut opened her mouth, her cheer already on the tip of her tongue, when the clouds darkened and broke and the monster barreled downward.

It was _enraged._

Ruffnut found herself gripping someone's arm. She couldn't possibly look away from the skies but she felt the slender arm slide under her grip until Astrid's hand clutched hers.

She held onto the other girl like the last five years meant nothing. This was the hand she held when Gobber told scary stories, and when their mothers left them in the same house during dragon raids, and when the boys made one of them cry.

This was the hand she needed to hold now, because one boy was about to make them both cry.

"What is he doing?" Astrid whispered. Her grip had become so uncomfortably tight that Ruffnut had to look at her. She had never seen such white fear on Astrid's face before. "What is he _doing_?"

Hiccup was flying straight down, the monster much too close. He was making no effort to escape its path.

"He...no, he'll be fine," Ruffnut whispered so that only Astrid could hear.

But they weren't pulling up—_why weren't they pulling up?_ The beast was behind them, its jaws gaping and grabbing with certain obliteration radiating from beyond the mammoth teeth.

Their hands tightened around each other. Astrid shook her head.

"They're going to hit—" she started to say when Hiccup and the Night Fury turned on their backs and fired a single, blue flame into the inviting mouth of the monster.

_Then_ they pulled up.

It happened so fast, with the confusing speed Ruffnut should have expected in battle by now. She didn't know where Hiccup and Toothless went—they disappeared almost as soon as they fired—and almost as soon as they fired the monster struck the ground.

An indescribable explosion swallowed everything within her vision. Every Viking was blown off his feet. Astrid and Ruffnut were thrown away from each other, their faces pelted with debris and heat. From the ground Ruffnut squinted at the skyward inferno. It went on forever, in time and in height. A buzzing nagged her left ear and she resigned herself to the possibility that her hearing had been damaged.

She waited and waited for Hiccup to rise up out of the fire.

And waited.

The flames began to die down. Smoke overtook, billowing and black, then wisping into the thick air.

Hiccup and the Night Fury never emerged. Neither did the monster.

It wasn't until the very last resonation of the eruption died did Stoick the Vast dare run into its stilled core.

Ruffnut pulled herself to her feet, spurred by the movements of those around her. Ash fell around her like snow. A pall of smoke lingered over the grounds, so thick it was impossible to breath without feeling like she would choke. But she was a Viking and no Viking would complain about unbreathable conditions.

The Hooligans followed after their chief.

"Hiccup!" Stoick called with his hands cupped around his mouth. "Son!"

Ruffnut moved at a slower pace, keeping in line with the other Vikings. She wanted desperately to run forward and find Hiccup and, at the same time, was too scared to search in earnest. Too scared of what she may find.

She didn't care how fast Fishlegs said a Night Fury was—it couldn't escape _that_ blast.

_"Hiccup!"_

Ruffnut almost lost sight of Stoick in the wafting smog. He could be seen kneeling before a dark heap with stooped shoulders that bode ill omens. Her legs weakened as she realized it was the Night Fury.

_Just_ the Night Fury.

Ruffnut slowed and stopped by the Vikings closest. No one broke the line. Not her, not Astrid, not Gobber. It was something more than respect that stopped them. Something tragic. The answer to the question no one dared to ask.

More than smoke saturated the air. Guilt and shame and disbelief bowed so many heads that Ruffnut thought she would never see a smile within the village again.

The dragon moaned and moved. It's wings unfurled.

"HICCUP!"

Ruffnut's breath caught in her throat—_there was Hiccup! _Her glimpse was brief; Stoick had staggered forward almost immediately and blocked most of her view with his legendary broadness. She could still see the top of Hiccup's head tipped back over his father's arm as Stoick pressed an ear to his chest.

Ruffnut bit the inside of her cheek.

Stoick sat back.

"He's alive!"

The words shot through Ruffnut like one of Thor's thunderbolts.

Stoick still sang praises but none of it could be heard. Too many people were cheering, and clapping, and sighing in tearful relief.

"He alive!" Tuffnut repeated. He shook her shoulder as if sensing she was caught in some state of shock.

"He's alive," Ruffnut mumbled. Then again, louder, "He's alive!"

Her cheers mingled with the uproar behind them.

A large arm wrapped around her. Ruffnut looked up to see her father, his eyes wet and his arms encircling both of his children.

"I'm proud o' yeh. Both o' yeh."

Ruffnut thought she would never see a frown in the village again.

**######## ########**

* * *

Ruffnut raked the whetting stone against her blade. The sound made a scraping sound that had long since become a comfort to her.

She sat outside her family home, her spear across her lap and her skin soaking up a lucky day of sun. This was one of the few moments Ruffnut got to herself. The entire village had been put to work to help accommodate their new residents, and in times that she wasn't assigned to labor Ruffnut had villagers—older and younger—approaching her for flying tips. She was one of the Soaring Six. She already had more to her name than she ever thought she would achieve.

But Ruffnut had not forgotten her first intended claim to fame, nor did she plan on abandoning that particular ambition. She just had some more competition than before.

Ruffnut proceeded to sharpen her spear, trying to let the sound of stone against metal chase the negative thoughts from her head—but her thoughts were now on Hiccup.

They took his leg. It was an awesome wound, and the way he got it was awesome, but some part of Ruffnut felt very, very sorry for Hiccup because_ he_ wouldn't see it as awesome. Even when he would pretend to. He was too weird. Of anyone in the village, Hiccup would be the Viking to find no pride in bearing a missing leg.

She would stop by the chief's house every now and then to visit Hiccup. The night before she even had the guts to breech the subject of marriage with her father.

"Hey—_Hey!_"

Sadly, the grating screech of her brother's voice would always override that of a whetting stone. Tuffnut bolted up the footpath to their house. Ruffnut remained focused on her filing. If she got a little more impressive with her spear handling she might get the attention of the chief.

"What?" she asked when he came near enough to hear.

Why was he even here? He and Snotlout were supposed to be giving a lesson to a couple Vikings—one on a Nadder and one on a Gronkle.

"He's up!" Tuffnut declared when he came to a stop.

Ruffnut looked up from her work. "Huh?"

Tuffnut rolled his eyes. "Hiccup, melon head. He's awake."

_Screw spears._

Ruffnut threw her weapon to the ground and bolted passed her brother, making sure to knock him hard in the shoulder by way of thanks.

"Oi!"

The chief's house wasn't exactly close to the Thorston residence, but Berk was a small enough island that Ruffnut closed in on the Haddock grounds in no time. A crowd had already gathered at the front of the chief's home...but did not press at the door.

Ruffnut frowned, her run slowing.

_Was he outside already? He shouldn't be outside!_

Wait...why should she care if he was outside? What a weird concern to have. She wasn't his mother.

Ruffnut picked up speed again, choosing to focus on what mattered.

Yes he was outside—she could see him now. The crowed had broken for a moment and from her place on the neighboring hill Ruffnut could see he was _smiling_.

_He was awake—he was alive and he was awake. Fever had not taken him._

Ruffnut smiled as well.

Then she saw Astrid grab Hiccup's shirt and kiss him.

The crowed 'ooh'-ed and laughed. Hiccup had that goofy smile on his face. His father's hand was on his shoulder, a saddle was handed to him and everything in that moment seemed _right._

Ruffnut was not a part of it. She was just a witness from afar.

Oh no, it was that nasty sickness again—the heavy, cold squeezing thing—but it was higher. It was in her chest and she really couldn't breath. She didn't know when she stopped and she didn't know how to start again.

She didn't even notice when she had stopped running.

Her eyes stared ahead as the Night Fury bounced around on top of Vikings like an excitable puppy. People were still laughing—_why were they so happy?_ How could people so close to her exude this kind of merriment while she felt _nothing_?

Nothing she wanted to feel.

Almost as though feeling her gaze on him, Hiccup's eyes were drawn to where Ruffnut stood. His smile waned and she could only imagine the look on her face to make his happiness fall like that. He didn't look away in shame, nor did his face fill with pity the way Astrid's had weeks ago. He turned toward her, his lips parted and his chest moved with an intake of air; he looked as though he planned to mouth something at her.

Stoick jostled Hiccup's shoulder and began to herd his son inside, damning Ruffnut to suffer unsatisfied curiosity.

Ruffnut winced at _his_ wince. _It was too early for him to be moving around so much!_

Some of the crowd followed the men into their home—the village laeknir was pushing through, demanding to see his patient. Others moved away with smiles, looking forward to spreading the news to anyone who hadn't heard of the young hero's awakening.

Only one hadn't moved with the masses, choosing instead to remain stationary. Someone who had followed Hiccup's line of sight and now stared at Ruffnut from across the hill.

Astrid had seen the look shared between Ruffnut and Hiccup. She knew something had transpired between the two of them, just as Ruffnut had sensed the night Astrid and Hiccup disappeared. Astrid didn't let anger or suspicion overtake her feathers. She didn't storm after Hiccup and demand an explanation.

She met Ruffnut's eyes and she nodded.

For the first time in their lives, Ruffnut felt Astrid acknowledge her as a rival. And, oddly enough, she found more satisfaction from that than the first time she kissed Hiccup.

Ruffnut nodded back. Her smile returned.

Game on.

######### ########

* * *

The End. Yay!

There was one thing I changed from the movie in this entire chapter: it was where Astrid and Ruffnut stood when they were watching the skies for Hiccup. That is all. The rest is all on-screen accuracy. I wanted this all to be perfectly plausible to coincide with the movie.  
I think HTTYD was a movie about friendship first, family second, and romance tagged on the end, and I wanted to salute that priority at the end here. I would much rather think this movie could have been about two different friendships rather than two possible romances.

Thanks for reviewing you guys! Keep your eyes open for more stuff from me; it's bound to pop up sooner or later. :)


End file.
